Broken
by Zynali
Summary: Katherine has escaped from the tomb, and she is taking her Salvatore brothers back. Can they stop Katherine's master plan, and do they even want to? AU from mid-season 2 with Katherine as the big bad. Rated M for dark themes, torture, smut, language.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **_I have been working on three different stories on my computer, and this is the one that seems to be coming together in order so I think it is time to start posting it. (I am also still working on the sequel to _Blood and Ashes_ as well as expanding my one-shot _Fade to Blue_ into a full story, for those who are curious.) This story is a bit darker, and while everyone else is writing season 3 (and doing a great job of it), I am going to rewrite season 2 ;) This is how it could have played out if the show had kept Katherine as the big bad and if the writers were deeply obsessed with Damon - and if the show was not on the CW. This story is centered around Damon and his relationships with Katherine, Stefan, and Elena. Some of the tertiary characters from season 2 will appear in roles similar to those they appeared in on the show. Rated M for dark themes, torture, smut, and language._

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters. This story is written strictly for fun._**  
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**Broken**

**Prologue**

Elena parked in front of the Salvatore boarding house and turned off her car. She knew she shouldn't be there, but she couldn't seem to stay away. If she thought things had been bad before, since she had found out she was the doppelganger, everything had fallen apart completely over the past three weeks. And it had all started when the Salvatore brothers had disappeared.

As always, the front door of the house was unlocked, and it was eerily dark and silent inside. Elena missed the crackle of the fire that had always been going in the fireplace, the voice of Stefan or Damon greeting her as she walked in. Now the place was dark and silent, the antique furniture and random knick-knacks gathering dust. Elena didn't know why she kept coming back there when she knew she would find nothing more than silence and another layer of dust. She guessed it reminded her of a time when she thought she and the town of Mystic Falls had a chance, no matter how slim, of surviving this encounter with the supernatural.

Elena took a few more steps into the house, ready to sink down onto one of the couches in search of whatever peace and comfort the silent mansion might offer. Then she saw a man sprawled on the carpet. He was facedown, unmoving and apparently unconscious. It was Damon.

**Chapter 1**

_Three weeks earlier_

Damon stopped in the middle of pouring himself a drink. There was someone else there.

Before he could do more than extend his senses, however, he was tackled from behind and driven to the floor. His attacker jerked his hands behind him, pinning him to the ground with a knee between his shoulder blades and a hand on the back of his neck. Damon writhed desperately, trying to dislodge the person on his back, but the hold on him never weakened and he felt his arms being forced up until excruciating pain shot through his shoulders. Then a hand drove his head hard into the ground with inhuman force. Damon's struggles ceased for a moment as white lights flashed before his eyes.

"Guess who, Damon?" his attacker whispered softly in his ear.

Damon knew that voice. _Katherine._ "How did you get out of the tomb?" he asked. She weighed absolutely nothing on his back, and yet not even all his vampire strength could help him against her. She had him almost completely immobilized. _Fuck. This is not good._

"All in good time, lover."

Damon felt her jerk his arms again, then felt cold steel around his wrists. _Handcuffs. She fucking handcuffed me._ "Really, Katherine? Did Liz recruit you to the Mystic Falls police force?" He tried to test the steel surreptitiously, confident that he could get free.

Katherine had apparently noticed his efforts. "This isn't my first rodeo, Damon, and I have witchy friends. They'll hold you."

Unfortunately, Damon could tell almost immediately that she was telling the truth for once. He should have been able to snap the metal easily, even in the awkward position with his arms behind his back, but the handcuffs didn't give in the slightest as he exerted his strength. _Well shit_, he thought. What he said was, "So you do this to all the guys? And here I thought I was special."

He felt Katherine's breath against his neck, then her lips against his skin. He couldn't suppress a shudder of horror. "Oh, you _are _special," Katherine whispered.

Damon hated his helplessness. His mind told him to fight, but his vampire instincts were telling him that she was too strong. Vampires usually lived and hunted alone or in pairs, but when they came together in larger groups, they tested each other to establish a hierarchy. That was why Pearl had hurt him when she had escaped the tomb, but he knew the struggle for dominance was going to be far, far worse with Katherine because, with her, it was personal. Giving in to her would be a very bad idea, but his animal instincts were telling him to submit, that it was his best chance of survival.

Katherine seemed to sense what he was thinking. "You will submit to me, Damon," she murmured in his ear. "You're mine." He felt her tongue lick along his ear, finding a sensitive spot.

Even as Damon growled out a response, "Sorry, Katherine. I've moved on," another shudder ran through him at the conflicting impulses that we're tormenting his mind and body. _Fuck, _he thought helplessly as his body gave in and relaxed.

"That's a good boy," Katherine said. Damon felt her shift her slight weight, and then pain burst through him as she injected vervain into his arm. He heard Katherine's voice as he passed out. "But I don't trust you just yet, Damon."

•••••

Damon woke up to find himself suspended by a set of chains that held his arms above him. Both of his wrists were encased in heavy shackles, and as he struggled to get his feet under him, he saw that his ankles were shackled and chained as well. There was a wall behind him, and Damon leaned back against it, trying to get his bearings through the vervain that still fogged his mind and drained his body.

Still disoriented, Damon saw Katherine approaching him. "Look who's awake," she said. "Did you have sweet dreams, Damon?"

Damon just looked at her, too out of it to come up with a response.

Katherine just smiled evilly at his silence. "Your brother is having a _very_ pleasant dream right now, you know." She stepped to the side, and Damon saw that Stefan was shackled on the other side of the room. He was unconscious.

"No," Damon murmured hopelessly, the plea of denial slipping out before he could stop himself. _Not Stefan_, he thought desperately. _Please don't hurt Stefan._

Katherine gave him another cruel smirk. "But you, Damon, you wouldn't let me into your dream," she pouted.

Damon felt sick with horror. Had Katherine gotten into Stefan's head? His little brother didn't stand a chance against her with his stupid animal diet. Damon was pretty sure that he could keep Katherine out of his own head. He had always been good at the psychological tricks of being a vampire, and he knew that those powers, unlike physical strength, increased only slightly with age. But Stefan couldn't even compel people reliably. He was almost as defenseless as a human against her.

"Let him go." Damon knew he was pleading with her, and he knew that it was the last thing he should do. But he couldn't stop himself.

Katherine stepped closer to him, running a hand down his chest. Damon shivered as Katherine spoke in a seductive voice. "What will you do if I let him go? What will you do for me, Damon?"

Damon knew that his mind wasn't working nearly well enough to play this game with her right now. He knew he should shut up before he made a terrible mistake. But he couldn't. "I'll do anything," he said. "I'll come with you. I'll let you into my head." The rational part of Damon – the part that might have had a chance in a battle of wits with Katherine – knew that he was going all in on the first hand and tried again to get him to shut up. But it was his fear for Stefan that was in control at the moment. After a pause, he went on, holding out the dream that had sustained him for 145 years. "We can take the world by storm, Katherine, you and me. Just don't hurt Stefan."

Katherine stared into his eyes for a moment, then she laughed. "You aren't worth that, Damon." She tapped Damon lightly on the chest even as he felt his heart breaking into a thousand pieces again. Damn it, why did she still have such power over him? He thought he had stitched himself back together again, and she broke him with one cold truth. "Besides, I will have both you and Stefan. Both of you are mine." She turned away. "Now if you'll excuse me, your brother and I are in the middle of something. Oh, and don't think that you'll be able to break those chains. My warlock has spelled them against vampire strength. You're here to stay, Damon."

Damon bowed his head, fighting back tears of pain and despair. The chains holding his body seemed to drag on his muscles, and he could feel a chain closing around what was left of his heart. Here he was, a vampire who had ruined towns and broken hearts for nearly a century and a half, and he was utterly helpless. He hated his own weakness, but most of all, he hated the knowledge that there was nothing he could do to help his baby brother. He couldn't protect Stefan from Katherine, and she would break them both as easily as she had broken them before.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **_And here is chapter 2. Please read and review. All feedback is very much appreciated!_

**Chapter 2**

It was only the hunger that was increasingly consuming his mind that gave Damon any idea how much time had passed as he hung there in that dungeon. Katherine was ignoring him, forcing him to watch as she toyed with Stefan's mind, and Damon could do nothing. He had already spent too much of his strength furiously and futilely trying to break his damn chains. Now he was only growing weaker and more desperate as his body clamored for blood.

Stefan, on the other hand, had gotten a couple of glasses of blood courtesy of Katherine, and Damon was pretty damn sure it was human blood. He couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing in terms of them getting free, especially since he preferred that both of their minds be intact when they finally escaped.

"Damon, have you come up with a plan yet?" Stefan asked him for about the hundredth time.

"No," Damon growled.

"How about mine then? We go along with her until she lets us out of here. Then we turn the tables."

It was hard to think past the hunger, but Damon knew one thing. He no longer trusted Stefan (if he ever had in a situation like this). Katherine had had too much time and opportunity to mess with his little brother's head. Stefan's plan might sound good in theory, but Damon didn't think it was the kind of plan that would work on Katherine. And it required him letting her into his head, which he was definitely not going to do because he was certain that if he did, he would never get her out again. "That's not . . . " Damon stopped as he heard footsteps.

A moment later Katherine opened the door, and this time she wasn't alone. She had two human girls with her. They looked to be about Elena's age, one blond and one brunette, both pretty and clearly terrified. Damon could hear their blood pumping through their bodies, calling to him, and he closed his eyes, well aware of what was probably going to happen next. What he would do.

"Are you hungry, boys?" Katherine asked. She shoved one girl forward with each arm. "Dinner is served. Don't say I don't take care of you."

Damon forced his hunger down. "Why don't you unlock these chains? We can have a civilized meal," he quipped.

Katherine tilted her head and smiled at him. "Where would be the fun in that? I want to see you work for your food. So have at it. Let's see how you do. Both of you." Her eyes turned to Stefan then.

Damon closed his eyes in despair. He knew what she wanted him to do, and he knew that he would do it. He was desperately hungry, and he needed to survive until he could somehow turn the tables on Katherine. When he opened his eyes again, he locked his gaze on the blond girl, compelling her to walk toward him. "Don't be afraid," he told her, watching as she pushed her hair back from her neck for him.

Shifting forward as much as the chains would allow, Damon gave into his bloodlust and felt his face change. He buried his fangs in the girl's neck. He could feel her blood pumping strongly, and the taste was exquisite. It had really been a long time since he fed from a live human, and he had forgotten just how much better it was than blood bags. Or maybe it was just that he was so hungry. He could feel the strength coming back into his body and his mind clearing as he drew in the girl's blood.

But Damon kept a small amount of his focus on the girl's heartbeat the whole time, and when he heard it slowing too much, he exerted every bit of his hard-earned control over his bloodlust and pulled away. He strongly suspected that letting her live would prove a futile gesture, but he wasn't about to give Katherine the satisfaction of watching him kill the girl. Unfortunately, with his hands chained above him, he had no way to catch her as she fell, so he could only watch – guilt running through him – as she fainted at his feet from loss of blood.

Katherine had watched the whole scene gleefully. "Not bad, Damon," she said, head tilted as though she were evaluating him. "Impressive control, although I can't imagine why you bothered to spare her. Let's see if your brother can do better."

Damon watched as Stefan called the brunette toward him. He couldn't see the girl's face, but he could see her terror in the lines of her body and his heart sank when Stefan did nothing to alleviate that terror. "Stefan," he said softly, knowing his brother could hear him. "Make it easier on her."

Stefan gave no sign that he had heard, burying his fangs viciously in the girl's neck and ripping her skin, but Katherine shot Damon an angry look. Damon ignored her. He tried again to reach Stefan. "Listen to her heartbeat, Stefan. You can stop before you kill her."

In a second Katherine was in front of Damon, and she hit him, hard. Damon's head snapped back, and he could feel that his lip was bleeding from the force of the blow. "Don't interrupt your brother's dinner, Damon," Katherine snapped.

The brunette had collapsed in front of Stefan, and to Damon's dismay, he couldn't hear her heart beating. Stefan had killed the girl. His brother's name slipped from Damon's throat, his voice coming out slightly strangled. "Stefan. Stef," he repeated. Damon couldn't see the slightest bit of remorse in his brother's eyes, and that scared him because that wasn't like his brother. His broody, animal-blood-loving little brother should be feeling guilty right now, and it was quite obvious that the only guilt in the room was resting in Damon's heart. And damn it, why did he suddenly care about human lives anyway? He told himself that he was only worried about Stefan.

Katherine had turned away from him toward Stefan. She was clapping. "Well done, Stefan," she said. "Let me just clean up your brother's mess. . . ." She bent down, and Damon closed his eyes as she snapped the neck of the blonde girl he had fed from. The girl's death had been inevitable, he told himself. He had done what he could. But he still felt vaguely sick.

Katherine stepped away from the blonde and crossed the room to the door. She opened the door and ushered in a tall vampire. She led the newcomer across the room to where Stefan was chained. She kicked Stefan's victim's body away from her and pulled a set of keys from her belt, handing them to the taller vampire. "You've done well, Stefan," she said. "Unlike your brother, you proved yourself today."

Damon watched as his brother's chains were unlocked from around his wrists. He wanted to laugh that Katherine was too short to unlock the chains herself, but he had enough sense of self-preservation left to keep quiet. Katherine caught Stefan as he fell forward at the sudden release of his arms after days in chains. "Come on, let's get you out of here," she told him in a soft voice.

Stefan looked across at Damon as Katherine led him toward the door. "What about Damon?" he asked.

"Damon's being mean to me," Katherine whined, and Damon couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Really? Wasn't the woman five hundred years old? "He can join us when he's ready to cooperate," she added in a more serious voice.

"Okay," Stefan said. He turned away from Damon as he let Katherine lead him from the room. The other vampire followed them out and locked the door after them.

Damon was left alone to stare at the bodies of the two dead girls. They weren't exactly the best company, and he couldn't help but wonder if Katherine would have freed him, too, if he had just killed the blonde. He didn't think so, but he knew that if she offered him his freedom in exchange for one human life, he would take that deal. He wished he believed that Stefan still had enough control of himself to come back for him.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **_Lots of Damon-Katherine interaction in this one. In case anyone has wondered about the exact timing of this story, it takes place after "Masquerade." In this version, Elena was never kidnapped by Rose and Trevor, and things were calm for a few days until, well, Katherine escaped from the tomb and kidnapped Damon and Stefan (i.e. until this story starts).  
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_Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, subscribed to, and read my story. I really appreciate all feedback so I would love some more reviews!_**  
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**Chapter 3**

Damon was bored, and he hated boredom. Being locked in that dungeon alone was even worse than being stuck there with Stefan. The peace and quiet had not helped him come up with any kind of a plan since he didn't have much hope of manipulating Katherine. And it was damned obvious that he was never going to break his chains. Katherine and Stefan could be doing anything, Katherine could be doing anything _to_ Stefan, Elena could have gotten herself in any sort of trouble – and there was nothing Damon could do about any of it. The helplessness alone was driving him insane.

So he was actually glad when the door opened again and Katherine and her tall vampire friend – minion? – walked through. The minion was carrying a large, heavy-looking bag.

"Damon, did you miss me?" Katherine asked with a flirtatious tilt of her head.

Damon would have shrugged if it wasn't excruciatingly painful to move his shoulders. Not even a vampire's body was meant to be held in this position for days. "You could at least install a TV in here," he said casually. "It's the twenty-first century, after all. This dungeon look is so middle ages."

"Aw, are you bored?"

Damon gestured at the two dead girls with his head. "You didn't leave me very good company," he mock-pouted. "How's Stefan?"

"They are starting to smell a little, aren't they?" Katherine answered. She waved her hand at the tall vampire. "Get these out of here," she said, and Damon watched as the other vampire obeyed without a word. Yep, definitely a minion. Damon had never understood Katherine's desire to have a pack of followers to do her dirty work.

Katherine tossed her long curly brown hair and turned back to Damon. "Stefan is doing _very_ well," she purred. "I'm teaching him how to be a better vampire, live up to his potential. Things his brother never taught him." When Damon ignored the dig, she added. "I don't think he misses you as much as you miss him."

"Did you give him a TV?"

"And a bed." Katherine shifted her body in a way designed to draw Damon's gaze to her cleavage. Naturally, it worked, and he mentally slapped himself for falling for her tricks. "You can have all those things, too, Damon, as soon as you show that you're ready to do as I say."

"I'm not big on obedience, Katherine. How about a partnership?" He might be bored, but he was far from ready to give into Katherine.

"You see, that's our problem, Damon. I made you what you are, and it's time for me to collect."

Damon didn't have an answer to that. For one thing, she was right – she had made him. But she had also broken him, and he didn't owe her a damn thing.

Katherine knelt down by the bag at her feet as she continued talking. "I brought some tools to help me persuade you," she said. "And you need to be punished for locking me in that tomb and trying to kill me."

"Stefan tried to kill you, too."

"And he has seen the error of his ways. You, on the other hand. . . ." Katherine pulled a stake out of the bag.

Damon couldn't stop himself from flinching slightly. Would she really just kill him? That wasn't Katherine's style. Katherine narrowed her eyes, and he was pretty sure she had seen his flinch. "Don't worry," she said in a tone that did absolutely nothing to reassure Damon. "We'll save that one for later." She pulled a knife, a glove, and a bottle of liquid out of the bag next. Damon watched as she put on the glove and then dipped the blade in the liquid. He had a bad feeling that he could guess what was coming.

Katherine stood up and walked over to Damon, knife in hand. She pushed her body up against his and undid the buttons on his shirt, letting it fall away to reveal his bare torso. "Pain is an old friend of yours, isn't it, Damon? How old were you when your father gave you your first real beating?"

Damon never talked about his childhood, and he hadn't even when he had been alive. He wondered how Katherine knew. Or had it been a lucky guess? She had known his father, after all. He thought about denying it, but what was the point, really?

"Eight," Damon admitted as a flood of memories hit him. It had been just after his mother had died of an illness from which he and Stefan had recovered. His memories of his father from when his mother was alive were fuzzy, but he thought the man had changed after her death. It certainly hadn't helped that Damon looked just like his mother, same sky blue eyes, same thick dark hair, same light coloring. And it hadn't helped that he had been too inquisitive for his own good as a child and just as easily bored as he was now as a vampire. He had constantly gotten into trouble, and his father had lashed him for it just as often. He could still feel the sharp pain of the lash cutting into his back, and he could hear his father's voice telling him what a disappointment he was, how he would never amount to anything if he didn't learn discipline. He hoped that Katherine wouldn't notice that she had gotten to him. He kept his voice casual. "It was a different era back then. Childhood was different. You of all people know that, Katherine."

Katherine ran her finger down his chest. "Do you really believe that Damon? How often did your father beat Stefan?"

"Just once." Once when he had caught Stefan red-handed before Damon could take the blame and the beating for his little brother.

Katherine had taken one step away from him, cold brown eyes looking into his own. "And that wasn't because Stefan was an angel, now was it? The rest of the time his big brother stepped in and protected him. You were such a good person back then, Damon." Her voice dripped with scorn. "What happened to that person?"

"You killed him, Katherine."

"Did I? You chose me, Damon. You chose everything I offered you. You chose the life of a vampire. So I think you killed the man you were."

Damon knew she was right. He might not have wanted to complete the transition to being a vampire, might have tried to blame Stefan for forcing him to turn, but before that he had begged Katherine to turn him. He didn't say anything. He couldn't.

Katherine trailed the knife down his chest this time, drawing a thin line of blood. Damon drew in his breath sharply as the vervain on the knife stung him. Katherine continued speaking, "And you were right to do so, Damon. That good, kind young man was weak. And what did being good ever get you? Do you see Stefan here returning the favor? Do you think he cares, in the end? You chose me once, Damon, and you were right to do so. Choose me again."

Damon thought his laugh sounded brittle. "Two wrongs don't make a right," he said.

The knife blade rested against his skin now, burning him. He ignored the pain, but he couldn't ignore Katherine's next words. "You know your brother hasn't asked about you once. Hasn't asked me to free you, or asked to see you."

That hurt, and Damon had to remind himself that Katherine lied, that he couldn't trust a word that she said. And even if she was telling the truth, Stefan wasn't himself right now anyway.

Damon went with his usual strategy when faced with emotions. He deflected. "Are you going to torture me, Katherine?" he asked. "Let's get on with it."

It was her turn to shrug, and she looked at him flirtatiously. "Just remember that you asked for it." She buried the vervain-soaked knife in his torso up to the hilt, and Damon gasped at the pain.

Katherine left the knife embedded in Damon's body and stalked back to the bag on the floor. She picked up the stake and advanced on him again. "I don't think pain is going to break you, Damon, but you need to remember what I can do to you at any time." She pulled her arm back and drove the stake into his body next to the knife, and Damon couldn't stop himself from crying out. His knees gave out at the sudden onset of excruciating pain, leaving him hanging from the chains around his wrists.

Katherine put a hand under his chin and pulled his head up. Her eyes bored into his. "Will you let me into your head now, Damon?" she asked, and Damon could feel her mind probing at his.

He forced the word out past the pain that was making his head spin. "Never."

"That's too bad," Katherine said. She twisted the stake, driving it upwards and causing Damon to cry out again. Katherine tapped him on the chest above where the knife and wooden stake protruded from his torso. "I think you need some time to think about your mistakes," she said. She turned away and gestured for her minion to follow her from the room.

Damon closed his eyes as he was left hanging there. The pain was made even greater by the fact that he had nothing else to focus on, and he knew it was only going to get worse the longer the stake was in his body.

•••••

The sound of the dungeon door opening roused Damon from unconsciousness as his body tried to respond to a possible threat. He peered at the man who entered through half-open eyes, struggling to get his bearings. It was Katherine's minion. To Damon's surprise, the man crossed the room to him and pulled both the stake and the knife out of his body. He was even more surprised when the man held a blood bag to his mouth. "Drink," the other vampire said shortly.

Damon didn't have to be told twice. The blood wasn't as good as that of the human girl that Katherine had brought before, but it still tasted damn good. And his body desperately needed the sustenance to heal itself. When he had finished, he met the eyes of the tall vampire, who was looking at him in disgust. "Why are you doing this?" Damon asked.

The man shrugged. "Katherine wants you cleaned up."

"Why are you working for her?

"Why do you think? She turned me. She gave me eternal life."

Damon laughed. "When did she turn you? A week ago? Eternal life is badly over-rated, trust me. Especially when Katherine is involved."

The other man pulled a towel out of the bag that was still on the floor. He walked over to Damon and rubbed away the dried blood from his abdominals before buttoning his shirt back up like nothing had happened. The two wounds had healed completely. "You wouldn't understand," the man said.

Damon couldn't stop himself from laughing again. "Oh, I understand," he said. Katherine would never stop getting her way, he realized, never stop corrupting people. He decided to change his approach, however, when the other vampire glared at him. So far this guy was proving pleasantly talkative. "So what kind of things does she have you doing for her?" he asked casually. "A little killing? Capturing some humans?"

The man looked at him suspiciously. "She sends me out for victims, like the girls she gave you and your brother. And I do surveillance. She trusts me."

Damon wanted to shake his head. How stupid could the guy be? "Surveillance?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're watching a lady sheriff and some rich woman and a high school teacher. And of course the doppelganger and her friends. They're investigating all the new deaths around town, so we make sure they don't find anything. Feed them false leads. Katherine has something big planned," he said proudly.

So they were still in Mystic Falls, Damon thought. Interesting. And Elena was still alive. That made it all the more important that he find a way out of here, somehow. He wondered why no one had come looking for him, or at least for Stefan, but he knew Katherine had a witch on her side so she had probably covered her tracks.

The other vampire was busy packing up the bag on the floor. "So how's my brother doing?" Damon asked.

The man looked at him suspiciously. "You're trying to get information out of me," he said.

_Well, duh_, Damon thought. "Nah, I'm just making conversation. It's lonely in here."

The man shook his head. "Sorry, I think I've told you enough." He picked up the bag and headed for the door, shutting it behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **_The first part of this chapter will briefly check in with Elena and friends, then it's back to Damon's cell. This chapter is very much M-rated. Please review if you like it (or even if you don't, as long as you're nice about it), and thanks for reading!_

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own any of the characters, unfortunately._**  
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**Chapter 4**

Elena looked at the friends crowded into her living room, feeling an overwhelming sense of despair. Bonnie sat on the couch, crying, and Caroline had her arm around their friend, trying to comfort the witch. Jeremy was perched uncomfortably on the other end of the couch, and Jenna sat across the room in an armchair. Elena and Alaric had finally told Jenna everything when the killings had started up again after Stefan and Damon had disappeared, and her aunt had taken it about as well as could be expected. Now Alaric was leaning against the banister, and Elena watched as he ran his hands through his hair. "Okay, Bonnie," the teacher said. "Tell us what happened."

"This man came to my door, and he asked for me by name and I could tell he wasn't a vampire so I came out. And he grabbed me and shoved me against the wall and . . ." She choked back a sob. "He took away my powers."

"So he was a witch?" Jeremy asked.

"A . . . a warlock. That's what male witches are called," Bonnie said.

"Did he say anything?" Ric asked.

"He said it was for the best. He told me to stop messing with Katherine's plans."

"Shit," Ric said. Then he looked around guiltily. Elena wondered why adults always acted like teenagers had never heard curse words before. "What did he look like?"

Bonnie sniffed. "He was older, maybe even older than you, Mr. Saltzman. A tall black man with short hair and glasses. He looked kind of like a professor or something."

Elena twisted her hands in her lap. Everything had gone so horribly wrong since the Salvatore brothers had disappeared without a trace over a week ago. Katherine was out of the tomb, the killings had started up around town again, and the Council was freaking out about it – but they didn't know if Sheriff Forbes and the Council had any real information since Damon had been their inside man and Damon was, well, gone. And now Bonnie's powers had been taken away, apparently by some warlock working for Katherine. Elena blinked back tears. She missed Stefan so much. Hell, she was even willing to admit that she missed Damon. And she needed their help. _Where are you, Stefan?_ _ Please be okay. Please come back to me._

•••••

Damon had long since lost track of how long he had been alone this time when his cell door finally opened, and Katherine walked through. "Damon," she purred. "Did you miss me?"

"Not really," he said coldly. "Come to torture me some more, since that was _so _much fun last time?"

She seemed to ignore his words entirely. "Poor lonely baby," she said, swishing her hips as she moved toward him. Her eyes ran hungrily down his body. Damon wanted to back away, but there was nowhere to go. He was terribly afraid that he knew what she had in store for him today. He had seen that look in her eyes before.

Sure enough, she came right up to him and pressed her body fully against his, driving him back into the cold stone wall behind him. Reflex caused him to jerk uselessly against his chains, seeking an escape. "Damon, surely you still want me?" Her voice was low and seductive as her mouth hovered over his, and the sound seemed to vibrate through his body. He couldn't suppress a shiver.

"Go away Katherine," he ground out, afraid of the way his body was reacting to her proximity.

"Mmmm," she said. "I don't think that's what you really want." With one jerk, she tore his shirt off and tossed it away. Then she was running her hands down his naked chest and over the muscles of his abdomen. She dropped her mouth to one nipple, first kissing it and then nipping it lightly. Damon closed his eyes, throwing his head back as his body began to quite obviously betray him. Katherine pressed her body harder against his, her hands caressing him everywhere. She brought her mouth to his neck, finding the most sensitive spot and teasing him with her lips and tongue. Damon couldn't stop himself from moaning in pleasure at the sensations running through his body. Fuck, she remembered how and where to touch him.

"I can feel how much you want me, Damon," Katherine whispered in his ear. Her hand was caressing him through his jeans, and his erection was already straining against the fabric.

"God," he gasped helplessly.

"No, say my name," she ordered him.

Damon wanted to defy her, but he couldn't stop himself. His defenses had been worn down by days of hunger and isolation and pain. If he had ever had any defenses against her. "Katherine," he moaned as he felt her unfasten his jeans. She left him hanging, though, bringing her hands up to pull his mouth to hers. She kissed him hungrily, her tongue tracing along his lips and demanding entrance. Thoroughly lost now, Damon opened his mouth to let her in, and he kissed her back. Their tongues dueled for dominance in a long hot kiss until Katherine finally pulled away.

"Still my Damon," she purred. She ran her hands down his body again, this time slipping her fingers into the waistband of his jeans. Damon trembled as she ripped off first his jeans and then his underwear, leaving him naked.

Katherine took a step back, eyeing him appreciatively. "Such a good look for you," she said. Her eyes ran up and down his body one more time.

Damon rattled one of his chains, momentarily back in control of at least some of his faculties now that she had stopped touching him. "Unlock these," he dared her. "Let me touch you."

Katherine shook her head. "I don't think so," she said. "I like you naked and in chains." She slipped up to kiss him again. "And I think you like it too," she murmured. Her hand stroked the length of his cock, and Damon moaned involuntarily again. "Admit it. You like it when I dominate you. You like being helpless."

Damon tried to shake his head. "No," he gasped, but his erection had only hardened at her words. God help him, but he did like it. Her touch was bringing back every memory of the things she had done to him when he was human, and no one had touched him quite like that in 145 years. "No," he said again, and she laughed that he lied.

"Do you remember, Damon?" she whispered against his neck. "Do you remember how I did _this_?" She licked his neck, and Damon trembled, knowing what was coming and helpless to stop it. She was still stroking his cock as she bit down on his neck. He cried out at the mix of pain and pleasure as he felt her drawing his blood out, treating him like any of the humans he had fed on. He felt himself becoming light-headed, his body weakening as her skillful mouth sucked on his neck.

What blood he had left was gathering somewhere other than his brain, and he moaned her name again as she pulled back. "Oh God, Katherine," he panted. He felt dazed, his body trembling with a combination of weakness and desperate desire as she kissed him again, letting him taste his own blood in her mouth. This time he couldn't even try to fight her for control of the kiss. He was utterly helpless under her touch.

"Still my sweet, innocent Damon." She moved her mouth down his shaking body, finally taking the tip of his rock-hard cock in her mouth. Her fingers swept his inner thighs, then his balls as she teased him with her lips and tongue.

"Please," Damonh begged, unable to take much more. He strained against his chains, pushing his hips forward. He was going to explode. "Please, Katherine."

Then suddenly she wasn't touching him anymore, and Damon stared at her blankly where she had taken a step back. He felt suddenly cold without her touch, and he was still crazy with need for her. "You're going to do something for me, Damon," she said. "Or I'm going to walk away."

Damon shook his head reflexively. This couldn't be good. But his body trembled for her, and he knew he couldn't hold out for long.

Katherine held something up. "You're going to wear this for me," she said. It was a collar.

"No," he said, refusing to give in. He wasn't some animal, and he didn't do submission. Not like this. Not to her, not anymore.

Katherine continued as though he hadn't spoken. "You're going to wear this and remember that you're mine. You obey me."

"No," he said again, stubborn.

"Now, Damon," Katherine murmured. "Don't be a fool." She stepped forward to him again, her breasts pressing against his naked chest. Her hand lowered the collar and Damon gasped as she dropped it onto his erect cock, her hand stroking his length one more time. "You want more of this, don't you?"

"Fuck," he moaned, knowing he was lost. Then he finally whispered what she wanted to hear, "Yes, I want more."

"That's a good boy." Katherine pulled the collar off of him and dragged it up the length of his body. He could feel its little metal spikes biting into his overly sensitized skin. "I bought it just for you," she whispered in his ear before she kissed the place where she had bitten him, dragging another moan from him. Damon shuddered as she fitted the collar around his neck. To his horror, he felt himself grow impossibly harder as she fastened it in place. "You like that, don't you?" she murmured.

"Yes," he gasped helplessly.

Katherine tapped his chest lightly as she dropped to her knees to take him into her mouth. Damon screamed her name until his cries became wordless as she worked him over until he came in her mouth. It didn't take long. His knees buckled at the force of his climax, and even as he slumped in his chains, Katherine was kissing him again. He could taste his pleasure in her mouth, and he felt her hand slip up to the collar around his neck. "You're mine, Damon," she told him as she pulled back from him. Her eyes bored into his. He could hardly think. "Let me into your head," she ordered him.

Damon could feel her mind pushing at his defenses. "No," he said. He had given her everything else as she had taken control of his body, forced him to submit to her. Not this, he thought frantically. But his mind was as confused and shaken as his body.

"Obey me," Katherine said, and Damon could feel the pressure of the collar around his neck. He was hers; she had made him, she had broken him more than once, and she would break him again. He might as well just give in. "Let me in," she continued. "Let me in, and you can touch me. You can leave this room, have everything you've dreamed of. You and me, together. Think of what we can be together, Damon."

He shook his head uncertainly. He knew she was asking him to give up everything he was, and part of him wanted to submit again, to give over whatever fragments of a soul he had left into her keeping. But he knew that she would destroy him. Hell, she already had. No, he would cling to the last remnants of his self. He was Damon Salvatore, he reminded himself, and he was no longer a naive twenty-three year old human. "No," he repeated, feeling stronger in that second. He might not be able to control his body in this fucked up situation, but he _would_ control his thoughts. He would not become another one of her minions. He locked his mind tight against her. "Sorry, Katherine. You're not _that_ good," he snarked.

"Damn it, Damon," Katherine said, eyes flashing angrily as she probed at his mental defenses. "Too fucking stubborn. You can rot in here for all I care." She slapped him hard, and his head flew back into the wall behind him with enough force to make him see stars. Katherine turned and stalked away without another word, slamming the cell door closed behind her. Damon was left hanging helplessly from his chains, weak as a kitten and naked except for the collar around his neck. He felt wrung out, body, mind, and soul. He closed his eyes and promptly passed out. Even then, his mind was still closed against any unwanted intrusions.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **_Not a lot of response to the last chapter, but hopefully that doesn't mean you all hated it. Hope you enjoy this one, and feedback is very much appreciated. Thanks for reading!_**  
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**Chapter 5**

Damon was awake but weak from the blood that Katherine had taken from him when the door to his little private hell began to open slowly. He winced silently at the fact that he was still naked except for the collar that Katherine had forced him to wear. Damon had been called an exhibitionist more than once in his long life – and it wasn't an unfair characterization by any means – but he would have given a lot for clothing just then. Still, he had a reputation to uphold so he got his feet under him and reminded himself one more time just who he was. He was Damon Salvatore, and he didn't do embarrassment.

Of course it was Katherine who walked through the door, followed by her tall vampire minion. The minion was dragging a human woman by the arm.

Damon called up his best flirtatious smile. "Are we doing a foursome this time?" he asked.

"You never stop, do you Damon?" Katherine said coldly.

"It's a gift, Katherine." He put a little extra emphasis on her name. He turned to the minion. "So is she as unsatisfying for you as she is for me?" he asked, using his head to gesture toward Katherine.

Katherine was in front of him in an instant, hand drawn back to hit him. As Damon's head hit the stone wall yet again with the kind of force that only a blow from a vampire could generate, his only thought that he was getting really fucking sick of that experience. Stunned, he could vaguely hear Katherine's voice over the buzzing disorientation in his head. "Get him down," she said, presumably to the minion, and Damon heard the rattling of keys. "And you, wait in the corner." That was presumably directed at the human girl.

Then Damon felt one of his arms released from its shackles, and the pain as his arm crashed forward and down for the first time in countless days shocked him. It was followed by the other arm, and Damon felt himself falling hard toward the floor, his fogged brain unable to deal with the excruciating pains shooting through his arms and shoulders. The stone floor and blackness hit him at the same time.

•••••

Damon heard a tentative female voice. "Hey, are you okay?" He didn't recognize it, and the words seemed out of place within those stone walls. There was no okay here, and he was afraid that he was never getting out.

After a moment, he realized that he could actually move his arms now. He was lying on the cold stone of the floor, which meant that he was no longer in chains. Damon felt a twinge of hope and raised his head. "What?" he asked stupidly.

"I asked if you're okay. She hit you really hard." The woman paused. "Like, impossibly hard."

"Yeah," he said, because was he really going to start explaining vampires to her at this point? It was too late for her. Damon didn't plan to kill her, but he knew perfectly well that Katherine would.

She continued talking when he didn't say anything else. "Look, you're hot and all, but I'm really not into this S and M stuff, so if you could just call your friends back and tell them to open the door and let me go home, I would really appreciate it." Damon could hear the false bravery in her voice. The poor girl was terrified, he realized. And he was starving again, his body still drained from Katherine taking his blood, so he might as well just get it over with.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. And then, because for some reason he wanted her to know. "They're not my friends." He met her eyes, noticing that they were a pretty green color. "Don't be afraid. Come over here." He tried to compel her, and the woman relaxed but didn't move. _Fuck, Katherine must have compelled her to stay in the corner. _ He couldn't override Katherine's compulsion on his best day, and this was definitely not his best day. That meant he had to go to her, and right now Damon had serious doubts about his ability to stand. So he crawled over to where the woman was sitting, praying that no one was watching his latest humiliation.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I don't have a choice." And then he buried his fangs in her neck. Once again he stopped just short of killing his victim, gently lowering her unconscious body to the stone floor. He fought the instinct that said to just finish her off, that he would need all the blood in her body and besides Katherine would just kill her anyway. Damon wasn't really sure why he was sticking to this refusal to kill humans; he had done it originally for Elena, but Elena wasn't there and he would probably never see her again. And he had done it for Stefan, wanting to show his brother that they could resist the bloodlust, but Stefan had given in and left him to rot in here. But now Damon had drawn a line at killing, and somehow crossing that line would mean giving into Katherine, so he pulled back and let the poor human live at least a few more minutes.

He closed his eyes briefly, reveling in the strength returning to his body as the woman's blood circulated through him. He reached up one hand and tore the collar from around his neck, then shredded the spiked leather into several pieces. That was better. No more chains, no more collar – things were looking up a bit.

Getting to his feet, Damon picked up the remnants of his clothes. Too bad they were too badly torn to be wearable. He had liked that shirt, although it was also thoroughly disgusting after so long in that dungeon. He tossed the ruined clothes into a pile. Next he tried the door, but it refused to budge even when he exerted all his strength. No surprise there. Katherine wasn't about to be stupid enough to lock him in a dungeon with a door that he could open, not when she had a witch who could apparently spell all kinds of things against vampires.

With a sigh, Damon sat back against the wall and waited, yet again, for someone to come. He was already bored.

•••••

Of course it was Katherine who came, tossing her hair and flouncing into the cell. She was alone this time, and Damon would have felt a surge of hope except that he knew better than to think that he could overpower her.

Katherine tilted her head and looked at him appraisingly. "You took off your collar," she said, sounding disappointed.

Damon shrugged. "I didn't much care for it. Not really my style."

"I'm hurt," Katherine pouted. "It was a gift, and I _know_ you enjoyed receiving it."

"Appearances can be deceiving."

In a flash, Katherine had him pinned against the wall. "Was it deceiving the way you were screaming my name? The way you were begging for me to fuck you? To get you off?" She trailed a hand down his chest teasingly.

Damon snarled and flipped their positions so that he was pressing Katherine against the wall. His hand was at her throat, but he had to use his body to help hold her there. She just laughed and pressed her own body forward into his, and to his chagrin, Damon's body was already responding. He was still naked, after all. "What do you want Damon? Do you want to be in control this time?" Katherine captured his eyes with hers, daring him. "Kiss me, Damon," she said. She brought her hand down to stroke his cock, completely ignoring his chokehold on her.

Damon gasped, eyes closing involuntarily and grip on Katherine slackening. "Fuck. That's cheating, Katherine."

"Now Damon, there's no such thing as cheating when there are no rules." Damon was trembling, mind and body again at odds over what to do, and Katherine easily pulled his hand from her throat. Releasing his cock, she ran her hands slowly down his back to his buttocks, pulling him against her, and he moaned. "Kiss me," she ordered.

Damon crashed his lips down onto hers in a bruising, violent kiss, and she kissed him back just as aggressively. He tore off first her shirt and then her bra. He ran his hand over her round breast before twisting her hard nipple in his fingers. Damon wanted to hurt Katherine, but she just moaned and bucked against him. "Yes, that's the way I like it," she said. Her hands and lips were all over his body, driving him crazy. He tore at her jeans, ripping through the fabric and tossing them away, and her black lace thong was gone even more quickly.

Katherine wrapped her legs around Damon's waist as he continued to press her to the wall, and his erection rubbed against her wetness. Their lips and tongues met again in another battle for dominance until Katherine nipped his lip, drawing blood and then lapping it away with her tongue. Damon growled at the smell of blood as his fangs descended involuntarily. He trailed his tongue down Katherine's slender neck, sensing the blood pumping beneath her skin.

But just as he prepared to bite her, he was flung away across the room. He landed heavily on the floor, staring at Katherine in shock. "You don't get to bite me, Damon," she said with a toss of her hair. Before he could react, she was on him, pinning him to the ground and kissing him again. A moment later, Damon flipped them, determined to be on top and determined to hurt Katherine. He pushed into her as hard and deep as he could, but she just gasped in pleasure as her body accommodated him. "You like it rough, Katherine?" he snarled. He began to drive into her hard and fast, using all the speed and power in his body.

Katherine met his thrusts with her own rhythm. "Yes," she moaned. "Oh yes. Just like that, Damon!"

A small part of Damon knew that he was just giving Katherine what she wanted, but he was lost in his body's own pleasure. "Fuck, Katherine," he gasped incoherently. Both of their bodies were slick with sweat, and the friction they created between them was unbelievable. Violent sex wasn't normally Damon's thing, but his whole body was on fire with sensation. Just when he thought he couldn't take any more, he felt Katherine clench around him and she screamed out his name again and again as her orgasm hit her in waves. He followed, pleasure overwhelming his body as he pumped his seed into her. It was so intense that he saw flashes of white light as he collapsed on top of Katherine, dazed, his muscles weak from release.

Katherine sighed in pleasure under him. "I knew you could play rough, Damon," she said after they had lain in silence for a few minutes, both trying to catch their breath. Then she shoved him off her unceremoniously and stood up. "I do quite like you as a vampire, you know," she mused as she looked down at him.

Damon just stared at her in shock, still lying on the floor and unsure what had just happened. What had she done to him? What had he done?

He heard a gasp from the corner. The woman with the green eyes was staring at them both. "What are you?" she gasped in horror, and Damon realized that she had seen them both moving much faster than was humanly possible.

Katherine stretched languidly. "We're vampires, honey," she said. Then she flashed over to the woman and snapped her neck before Damon could do more than raise a hand in protest.

Katherine turned back to him with her best pouty face. "Did you really have to destroy my clothes so thoroughly?" She gave an affected shrug and let her eyes roam casually over his body. "It was worth it, though," she said, swaying her hips suggestively as she headed for the door to the cell.

Katherine tossed something back through the door as she sauntered out, and Damon slowly raised his head to see a small pile of clothes. He dragged himself over to it, finding a pair of jeans and a black pullover that looked like they could have been taken from his closet. No underwear, but he really didn't care about that at this point. Feeling absurdly grateful to no longer be naked, Damon quickly pulled on the clothes. Then he sat back down on the floor, staring at the body of the dead woman. He felt sick. "I'm a monster," he whispered.

**A/N: **_Next chapter: Damon finally gets out of the dungeon, although maybe not how you would think._


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **_In honor of Thursday (if only we had new episodes of the show, such a long wait!), here's the next chapter._**  
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**Chapter 6**

This time it didn't take all that long for the door to open again, and to Damon's shock, Stefan appeared in the door. Damon couldn't keep the hope from his face or his voice at the sight of his brother. "Stefan!" he exclaimed as he climbed to his feet. But his expression hardened again as Katherine and her favorite minion followed Stefan into his cell. Katherine had found herself some new clothes.

"Brother," Stefan greeted him with a serious face. "Katherine has said that you can come with us on our next trip into Mystic Falls. You just have to drink this." He held up a bottle.

_That can't be good_, Damon thought. He decided to try to feel out the situation. "What is it?" he asked.

It was Katherine who answered. "Just a little potion that my warlock cooked up." She reached out a hand and Stefan handed her the bottle.

"What does it do?" Damon asked.

Katherine pouted at him. "He made it special for you, Damon."

"I'm afraid that's not really a selling point," Damon said with a shrug. "I think I'll pass."

Stefan grabbed his shoulders. "You can trust Katherine, Damon," he said urgently. "We want you with us."

Damon jerked away from his brother. Stefan had gotten stronger, undoubtedly because of a sustained diet of human blood. "No, I can't trust Katherine," he replied. "And neither can you."

Katherine interrupted him. "Stefan, you know we don't have time for this. He'll come around. You know this is the only way." Her voice was artificially soft, and Damon winced at the fakeness of it. Surely Stefan wouldn't fall for this shit? Katherine turned to Damon, then. "Damon, are you sure you won't take this willingly?"

"I'm sure." There was no way in hell he wanted anything to do with whatever was in that bottle.

Katherine shrugged. "Then I'm afraid we'll have to force you. I'm sorry, Damon, but you'll understand someday." She gestured to the other two vampires in the room. "Stefan, Marcus. . . "

Before Damon could react, the two vampires had slammed him back into the wall. He tried to twist free, but his erratic diet in that dungeon hadn't exactly been conducive to maintaining his strength. "Stefan, don't do this," he said desperately, still struggling to free his arms.

"I'm sorry, brother. It's for the best," Stefan growled at him, straining to keep Damon pinned to the wall.

Damon watched as Katherine sauntered forward. He struggled harder and managed to slip from the grip of the minion, Marcus. Katherine snarled and closed the distance between them before Damon could press his advantage. She shoved him hard back into the wall, and Marcus took the opportunity to regain his grip. "Stefan," Damon begged frantically, aware that he was rapidly running out of options.

"Now, Damon," Katherine admonished. "Behave yourself." She reached up and grabbed Damon's jaw in one hand. She forced his mouth open as she brought the bottle to it. Her strength was too much, and she held Damon immobile as she forced him to drink.

The potion burned down his throat, and Damon choked, staggering forward as the three other vampires finally released him. He couldn't stop himself from falling to his knees. He could feel tendrils of magic stretching through his body, scorching his insides as they settled into his muscles. To Damon's horror, he could feel himself losing control of his body as the magic seeped into him, inhabited him. "No," he gasped. He knew that he was writhing on the stone floor of the cell as his body resisted the magic, but he felt a growing numbness and he knew his struggles were lessening. Then after a few minutes, he lay still.

Feeling oddly distant from his body, Damon tried to get up. Nothing happened.

"Interesting," Katherine said, staring down at him. She twisted a new ring on her finger, one that Damon knew he had never seen before. "Get up, Damon," she said.

To his shock, Damon's body responded to Katherine's order. He stood up.

"Punch the wall," Katherine told him. There was a gleeful smile on her face. He tried to stop himself, but against his will, Damon felt himself draw back his arm and hit the wall with all his strength. He could feel the pain of his scraped knuckles and the tingle as they healed, but his body didn't react. It was like being compelled, he thought in horror. His body was obeying Katherine's commands and not his own. What the hell kind of magic was this?

Katherine clapped her hands together happily. "Lovely," she said. And then, touching the ring again, "Damon, follow us."

Trapped and helpless in his own body, Damon could only scream silently as he calmly followed the other three vampires out the door.

•••••

Damon, or rather Damon's body, followed Katherine and Stefan to a black SUV. Stefan climbed in the back seat, and Damon did the same as Katherine got in the front seat. Four other vampires, including Marcus, filed into a second SUV. Looking out uselessly from the puppet that his body had become, Damon thought the whole thing was rather too clichéd-bad-guy for his taste. Really, he expected more flare from Katherine.

An African-American man was waiting for them behind the wheel of the SUV. As Damon sat down, he turned around and gave the vampire a penetrating glance. Shuddering from his place trapped in his own head, Damon knew that this was the warlock. This was the man whose power had done this to him. "So you went through with it," he said to Katherine.

"It worked beautifully," she answered with a shrug.

"I warned you not to do it lightly," the man answered, and Damon thought he heard a hint of anger in his voice. "Vampires and this kind of magic do not mix well or easily. You know that, Katherine."

Katherine laughed. "Lighten up, Jonas. Everything is working out just fine." She turned to look at Damon and Stefan in the back seat. "I have both my boys with me, finally, and I am going to have so much fun playing with Damon tonight." She toyed with the new ring on her finger for a minute, watching Damon, before turning back to the road in front of them.

Damon would have shivered if he still had a body to shiver. This was sounding worse and worse. His body stared mindlessly straight ahead, and he wished he could at least turn his head to look out the window. This was the first time he had been outside since Katherine had captured him, after all. The sun had just set, and night was descending on the world. He had missed night. He wondered suddenly if Katherine's new vampires had daylight rings – were they working at night out of choice or necessity? Come to think of it, he didn't remember seeing a ring on Marcus the Minion. That was interesting, especially since the warlock, Jonas, obviously had more than enough power to make a ring. Did Katherine not want her new minions to be daywalkers, or did Jonas not know the spell?

Damon also tried to figure out where they were, which was challenging given his limited field of vision. The house they had left had been an old one, built early in the nineteenth century unless he missed his guess – which made sense if Katherine had wanted a place with a dungeon for prisoners like him – but they seemed to be in a nearby town or a suburb of Mystic Falls and headed now toward the center of town.

The SUVs pulled up at the main square in downtown Mystic Falls and parked in the only two open spaces, which happened to be disabled parking. Inside, Damon smirked at that. He supposed that Katherine didn't worry about parking tickets. As he followed the others out of the trucks, he saw that the town looked to be in the middle of one of the endless civic events that marked life in his home town. A stage had been set up with spotlights and a podium, and Damon recognized the members of the founding families sitting in rows of chairs on that stage. Liz was there, and Carol Lockwood, and all of the members of the Council. Shit, but he had a bad feeling about where this night might be going.

As Katherine led her group of vampires closer, Damon caught a glimpse of the front row of people down off the stage. He couldn't turn his head to scan the crowd – and that was incredibly frustrating – but he thought he saw Elena and Jeremy and Caroline. His heart sank. Maybe if the little witch was there, too, she could somehow stop all of this. He suspected it was a futile hope. Katherine would have thought of that, and Jonas was undoubtedly far more powerful than Bonnie.

Katherine motioned for the six vampires and one warlock to gather around her. She pointed at the three vampires that Damon didn't know. "You three will take care of the crowd. Most of them should simply run, but you may have to restrain the doppelganger and her friends to keep them from interfering. The most dangerous is the blonde girl – she's a vampire, the only one with any real power left." Damon wondered about that. What about Bonnie's witchy powers? Katherine was still talking, however. "Don't do any lasting harm to her, however. I have other plans for little Caroline."

She turned to Damon, Stefan, and Marcus then. "You three will kill all of the members of the Council and the adults of the Founding Families," she began. Damon wished desperately that he could attack Katherine or run away or do anything other than obey, really, but his body still wasn't his to command. _Please, don't make me do that. Don't make me kill people I knew. Don't make me kill Liz._ "Damon, you will kill Carol Lockwood and the Fell whatever-his-name-is," she ordered. "Stefan and Marcus, you get the others. Remember that they are probably on vervain, so no feeding."

There was nothing Damon could do to stop himself as he and the other vampires turned toward their prey.

•••••

Elena had a very bad feeling about this particular Mystic Falls fundraiser. She hadn't wanted to come, but her friends had insisted. It wouldn't be Mystic Falls without all the civic events, but it seemed like a bad idea to be having an event like this at night with Katherine on a rampage. Plus, she expected a series of boring speeches to kick off the evening.

Elena watched as Carol Lockwood stood up, pausing to whisper something to one of the other adults on stage before taking a step toward the microphone. Before she could take a second step, however, three figures appeared from out of nowhere on the stage. Elena gasped. She would know two of them anywhere, and they were alive. She felt a surge of hope. "Stefan!" she cried out, taking a step toward the stage before she felt someone grab her.

"Wait," Jeremy said as he held her back from rushing the stage.

In that fraction of a second after Jeremy stopped her forward momentum, Elena felt her whole world flip on its head yet again. She watched as Damon sprang at Carol Lockwood and snapped her neck in a single smooth motion. She saw Stefan close on Sheriff Forbes and do the same to her before she could get her gun more than halfway out of its holster. She heard herself scream "no," and Jeremy's arms tightened around her to keep her from rushing forward.

Most of the people around them were running away from the stage, but Elena saw Caroline disappear from beside her with a cry, and she knew the blonde vampire had leaped toward the stage, ready to fight. Just as quickly, however, Caroline was thrown backwards by another vampire. Three vampires had materialized between them and the stage where the massacre was taking place. Unable to tear her eyes away, Elena watched as both Stefan and Damon killed again.

And it seemed like just like that the humans on stage – all the members of the Council, Elena realized with a start – were dead, and only the three vampires stood there. Stefan turned around then, and she saw his eyes. There was a darkness, a crazed look in them that somehow matched his vampire countenance. She had seen that look before when he was on human blood. As she forced herself to look away from Stefan, horrified, her eyes landed on Damon as he too turned to face her. His face was also that of a vampire, but his eyes had a vacant, empty look that she had never seen before. She had an odd feeling that it wasn't Damon that she was seeing up there, even though it obviously was.

As Elena tried to sort out her impressions of the two vampires she had known so well, her mirror image joined them on the stage. Katherine tossed her curly hair and glanced at the bodies scattered amongst overturned chairs with what looked like satisfaction. She turned to Elena then, brown eyes meeting brown. "Just remember – I always get what I want," she said. She gestured, and Stefan and the other vampire turned to follow her. Damon just stood there, staring blankly forward, and Elena thought that he wasn't even really looking at anything, even her. "Damon, come," Katherine said, sounding vaguely annoyed, and Damon turned then. He followed as Katherine led the other vampires back into the darkness.

Elena gasped, feeling tears flowing belatedly down her face. What had just happened? Stefan and Damon were alive, but they were with Katherine. And they had just killed all of the members of the Council, including Tyler's mom and Caroline's mom. People she had known her entire life.

Caroline had gotten up from where one of the vampires had thrown her and rushed to her mom's body. Elena could hear her sobbing. Bonnie was headed for the stage to comfort Caroline, and Jeremy finally released Elena and she walked numbly forward. It had all happened so fast.

Elena saw Alaric and Jenna approaching from where they had been sitting in another section of the crowd. Jenna grabbed her arm. "Are you all right, Elena?" she asked worriedly.

Elena stopped walking and nodded vaguely. She turned toward Ric, desperate for someone to tell her that everything would be all right, that she hadn't seen what she had just seen. "It was Stefan. . . . and Damon," she said. Her voice didn't even sound like her own.

Ric nodded grimly. "I know."

"They were with Katherine." Her throat choked with despair as she said the name.

**A/N: **_I know, slightly misleading "preview" last chapter, but I couldn't resist ;) Damon did get out of the dungeon, after all - he just hasn't escaped (yet?)._


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The vampires were halfway back to the house when Damon began to shake uncontrollably in the backseat of the SUV. Stefan stared at him. "Damon, are you okay?" he asked.

Of course Damon couldn't answer, but Katherine turned around at the concern in Stefan's voice. "Stop that right now, Damon," she ordered. "Stop shaking." If anything, Damon started shaking more violently at her words. He wished that it meant that he was regaining control of his body, but he didn't think so. Shaking crazily was not what he would be doing right now if he had a choice in the matter. He could think of several better plans off the top of his head – attack Katherine, attack the warlock, hell throwing himself out of the car sounded like a solid idea at this point. But he still couldn't do any of those things.

He saw Jonas turn and quickly glance back at him from the driver's seat. "It's the magic," he said. "His body is reacting against it. You need to end the spell now."

Katherine looked stubborn. "Not until we get back to the house. He'll be fine."

Damon felt a shooting pain in his skull, followed almost immediately by a second one. His hands came up to clutch his head, and he distantly heard himself groan in pain. _Fuck_, he thought. He might not be able to control his body, but he could feel what it felt and right now everything fucking hurt.

Stefan was looking worried. "Katherine," he said urgently. "I think something's really wrong with him."

"He's fine, Stefan," Katherine said soothingly. She glared at Damon. "He's just being a drama queen."

Jonas' voice was low and insistent. "He's not faking, Katherine. If you want him to survive, you need to remove the spell."

"I'll end it when we can secure him at the house," Katherine said.

"He's not going to escape, if that's what you're worried about," Jonas countered.

"Fine," Katherine conceded after giving Damon a long stare. "You're the expert. But it's on you if he escapes."

"That's fine," Jonas said. "Do you remember the phrase?"

Katherine just glared at the warlock. She twisted the new ring on her finger and spoke a strange phrase that Damon didn't think he would have understood even if his head hadn't been exploding with blinding pain. He thought the end of the spell should have brought relief, but instead it brought a wave of even more excruciating pain. Every muscle in his body locked in protest, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he passed out.

•••••

Elena sat slumped on her couch, trying desperately to process the day's events. Bonnie had taken Caroline to her house, and Elena was planning to go over there later and try to help her friend through her grief. But first she had to sort out her own thoughts. She couldn't believe that Stefan would betray her like that, but she had seen it with her own eyes. She was sure that he was back on human blood again, but how could even that be enough explanation to justify him joining with Katherine? "Stefan," she whispered sadly to herself. She turned to Jenna where her aunt sat next to her on the couch. "How could he do this to me? To all of us? How could he kill Caroline's mom?"

"I don't know, honey," Jenna said sympathetically. Elena saw her glance at Ric for support.

Elena looked at Ric, too. "Could Katherine be controlling him somehow?" That was the only explanation she could come up with, but she had met Stefan's eyes as he stood on that stage. He hadn't been _her_ Stefan, the boy she loved, but he hadn't looked truly out of control, either. Maybe this _was_ Stefan the vampire, the side of him that he had always tried so hard to suppress around her. She had known that side of him existed, and she felt terrified that this was who he really was. A killer.

"I don't know," Ric answered finally. "Maybe."

"There has to be something we can do." She knew she was pleading with Ric to offer her some hope.

"Elena, we're kind of severely out-gunned here." Ric sounded apologetic, but Elena knew he was right.

Jenna spoke up then. "It can't be a coincidence that Katherine took out all of the members of the Founders' Council."

"And she was sending a message by doing it publicly," Ric mused. "We need to figure out what she's up to."

"I know," Jenna answered. "But where do we even start?"

Elena barely heard her aunt and her teacher's words. She couldn't think about the big picture. Stefan's betrayal was consuming all of her thoughts, and she cast around for something, anything else to think about. Unfortunately, she couldn't get her mind to travel very far. "What about Damon?" she asked abruptly. "His eyes. Did he look . . . wrong to you? Like it wasn't really him?"

Ric frowned. "I'm not sure. I thought maybe something was wrong, but I think we're probably grasping at straws here. We have to assume they've both joined with Katherine."

Elena nodded. He was right, of course. But she couldn't shake the sense that there had been something wrong with Damon, and she refused to let go of the hope that she could get Stefan back, get both of them back. It was all she had.

•••••

Katherine frowned down at where Damon lay on the floor of his dungeon cell, unmoving. Jonas had told her that the potion and spell would have rather severe effects on a vampire, but she was disappointed to find out that he had not exaggerated. Damon had seemingly not stirred since he had passed out in the car. She nudged him over onto his back with her foot. "Damon," she said, her voice loud and tone disapproving. When his eyes remained closed, she knelt down and slapped his face. "Wake up," she ordered.

Damon did open his eyes at that, although Katherine noticed that he didn't move any other part of his body. The look in his ice blue eyes stopped the words that were on the tip of her tongue. He looked lost, and she saw pain, fear, confusion, betrayal, hopelessness spiraling in the depths of blue. The fight and fire that he had shown since the day she had captured him were gone, and Katherine wondered why she didn't feel a sense of triumph. It looked like she had finally broken Damon, and hadn't that been her goal, after all?

She stood up with a flourish to hide her confusion. "Give him some blood," she ordered Marcus as she swept from the cell.

•••••

By the time Marcus had forced two bags of blood down his throat, Damon could finally move a little and speak again, even if the walls and floor of the cell were still spinning around him. Occasionally, a bolt of strange, unnaturally colored light would flash somewhere within the range of his vision. This was one hell of a withdrawal or detox or whatever you wanted to call it, although nothing could be worse than the potion itself and being Katherine's puppet. "Go away," he muttered at the other vampire. For once, he just wanted to be alone.

Marcus just shrugged and tossed another blood bag onto the floor next to him. "Have it your way," he said. "I have better things to do anyway." He turned on his heel and left the room. Damon heard the lock click closed behind him, and he closed his eyes.

Damon curled into a fetal position. The blood had restored some of his strength, although he still felt horribly weak, but his thoughts were far worse than the lingering pain and weakness in his body or even the crazily spinning room. It wasn't so much that he had killed; Damon had killed countless people in his long life, and he could simply add the guilt for these deaths to that guilt. It was the way that Katherine had managed to violate him completely, to steal every piece of his will. Katherine could control him, use him, and now there was no going back to his old life. Elena had seen him kill Carol Lockwood, seen him stand there and do nothing while his friend Liz Forbes was killed. The only small mercy was that Katherine apparently hadn't known about his friendship with the sheriff, since he was sure that she would have made him kill Liz himself if she had known. No, there was no going back now. Damon tried to tell himself that he didn't care about Elena or Liz or Alaric or anyone in Mystic Falls, but he was alone and he couldn't lie to himself in the dim light of the dungeon with the strange flashing colors marring his vision. He cared. And for some reason, he couldn't flip the switch and make it stop.

And worse than any of it, Stefan had betrayed him utterly. Stefan had held him down while Katherine had forced that potion down his throat. Damon tried to tell himself that his brother wasn't in control of his own body, but he knew that Stefan hadn't been under the influence of any potion or spell. He had just been under the influence of Katherine, and he had chosen Katherine over Damon with full knowledge of what she was. All Stefan's words about how Katherine would try to break them apart, how they needed to stick together, had been nothing more than words, and he had betrayed Damon again. Damon curled in on himself in utter despair and tried to stop the tears from flowing. He felt completely alone in the world.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **_Thanks to everyone who has read and, especially, reviewed. I haven't had a chance to respond to all of them, but I appreciate every one! For those readers who might want a more, shall we say, proactive Damon, we're getting there._

**Disclaimer: **_As always, I don't own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters from the show. I wish I owned Damon, though!_**  
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**Chapter 8**

Katherine was not in a particularly good mood when she entered the dungeon cell. Damon was sitting with his back to the wall, hands resting casually on his bent knees, and he looked up at her with dull blue eyes as she entered. He didn't say a word.

Katherine tilted her head and looked at him consideringly. "What, no sarcastic comment?" she teased.

Damon remained silent, his eyes still dull and lifeless, and Katherine verbally prodded him further. "Have I actually rendered Damon Salvatore speechless?"

After a moment, Damon finally spoke. "What do you want from me, Katherine?" His voice sounded subdued and bitter, and Katherine frowned.

She knelt in front of him. "You know what I want, Damon. Are you ready to open your mind to me? This can all be over, and we can have some fun. Wouldn't you like that?"

"No," he said tiredly. His voice lacked conviction, but Katherine thought she saw a tiny spark of defiance flash in his blue eyes. She was oddly pleased by it, and she suddenly hoped that what she said next wouldn't extinguish that spark.

"I need your help with a little werewolf problem, Damon. It's your fault, really, since you killed Mason and disrupted my plans, so you're going to have to help me fix it. And we both know that I can't trust you yet, so I need you to drink another potion for me." She tried to keep her voice gentle, but she saw fear flash in Damon's eyes at her words. He scrambled away from her, cowering in the corner of his cell like some sort of scared animal. Katherine thought her heart clenched slightly at the sight, and she wondered what had brought that on since she knew that she was long past caring about anyone except Stefan. She should be enjoying the sight of Damon broken and cowering in fear, she reminded herself coldly.

Shooting a look of disgust at Damon, she stood up and crossed the room to open the cell door to admit Stefan and Marcus.

•••••

This time Damon felt no hope as Stefan entered his cell. He hated the way he was cowering, hated the fear that was overwhelming him, but he was exhausted, still weak from his previous experience with Katherine's potion, and he had no options left. As much as he wanted to get up and defy Katherine yet again, he couldn't make his body obey him as the animal instincts of his vampire side realized that neither fight nor flight was much of an option right now. So Damon shrank into the corner of his cell with barely more control over his body than he had had while under Katherine's spell, and that, he thought, was the ultimate defeat.

Stefan looked down at him, wearing a concerned expression. "Damon, what's wrong?"

Damon didn't answer because really, what did Stefan think was wrong? His brother was a fucking idiot if he couldn't figure it out.

Stefan turned to Katherine when Damon remained silent. "Katherine, what's wrong with him?" Damon laughed at that. It was a bitter, insane sound. After everything, _this_ was where they had ended up. Katherine still stood between them, and he and Stefan were both shattered shells of their former selves.

"He's fine. He's just throwing a fit." Katherine glared at him.

Stefan still looked concerned. "This isn't like him."

Damon cackled again at that. _Now_ his brother suddenly cared again. Now when it was too late.

Katherine took Stefan's head in her hands, looking into his green eyes. "Your brother will be fine, Stefan, but we need his help today. And he can't exactly help us like this." Her voice had filled with scorn for Damon. Damon would have been offended, but he actually agreed with her. He was pathetic. Her tone changed again as she continued speaking to Stefan. "Remember what I've been teaching you. You can't be soft-hearted as a vampire. You have to do what it takes to survive. Whatever it takes."

Stefan finally nodded. "Okay," he said, sounding slightly reluctant.

Katherine pulled Stefan's head down to her and kissed him. "I love you, Stefan," she whispered.

Her voice was very soft, but Damon could hear her clearly. _Please_, he thought in disgust, and something in him snapped back into place, giving him a slight burst of strength. An idea came to him. It wasn't really worthy of the word "plan," but at least it was something. He watched as Katherine held out her hand to Marcus and the tall vampire pulled a bottle from his pocket and placed it in her hand. Damon knew that small bottle contained the potion that he dreaded.

Katherine turned back to face Damon's corner again. He rolled his eyes in what he hoped was a passable imitation of his usual self and reached out his hand. Unfortunately, it shook. "I'll drink it," he said. "You don't have to force it down my throat. It's not like I have a choice."

Katherine narrowed her eyes, looking at him suspiciously. She was probably onto him, but Damon kept trying. "Let me keep _some_ dignity here," he said, letting annoyance creep into his voice. _Probably too late for that_, he thought to himself. _Cowering in the corner is not exactly conducive to dignity._

Katherine shook her head. "No, you're up to something. You're probably planning to smash the bottle."

_Fuck. Well, it was worth a shot._ "Oooh, good idea. I wish I'd thought of that." Damon's voice dripped with sarcasm. He also wished he had even a chance of being fast enough to grab the bottle from Katherine's hand and destroy it, but he was pretty sure that trickery was his only option right now. And it had just failed.

Katherine's cold eyes flashed with some emotion that he couldn't pin down, and she smiled. Did she actually look . . . pleased? That didn't make any sense. Damon didn't have any more time to puzzle over Katherine's expression, however, as she gestured to Stefan and Marcus. "Hold him," she said. Damon fought then, but he was still weak and three against one were hopeless odds anyway. He was slammed to the floor and held there as Katherine forced the potion down his throat.

Once again, Damon felt the magic slithering through his body, lodging itself in him and stealing his own body away from him. A few minutes later, he lay still on the floor of his cell, waiting for Katherine to pull his puppet strings again. "Stand up and follow me, Damon," she ordered, fingering her ring. Damon obeyed shakily. In truth, he was a bit surprised that his body had managed to get to its feet.

Katherine led the way through the door of the cell and down a hallway. She darted out of sight for a moment, and Damon stopped automatically, uncertain where she had gone and therefore unable to obey her order to follow. Katherine flashed back to his side a second later, and to his surprise she handed him two blood bags. "Drink these," she said. "You may need your strength today."

•••••

Damon followed Katherine out into a sunny afternoon. He could feel himself squinting in the sunlight, his eyes struggling to adjust after weeks of being locked away from the sun. At least the two bags of blood had restored some of his strength. His body felt better than it had since his last run-in with the damn potion. Too bad it once again wasn't his own.

This time there was only one black SUV waiting for them, and the warlock Jonas was leaning against the car. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Damon. "Katherine," he began, sounding concerned.

Katherine raised a hand to silence him. "If you would make daylight rings for my new vampires, I wouldn't have to use Damon," she pointed out. Damon was pleased to learn that his guess that Marcus and the other minions were restricted to nighttime activities had been correct.

Jonas responded angrily. "I told you. Bonnie Bennett hid Emily's grimoire. If you find me the spell, I can make the rings for you, but you've been keeping me busy enough as it is. Magic of this level is not easy, you know." Damon had the feeling that he was listening in on an argument that had been rehashed more than once. He noticed that the warlock didn't hesitate to talk back to Katherine, which seemed a bit surprising.

Katherine just shrugged. "We have an appointment to keep." She pointed at Damon. "Get in the car," she ordered, and of course, his body obeyed. Once again, Jonas drove, and Stefan climbed in the back seat next to Damon as Katherine took the front seat. This time Jonas drove them in the opposite direction from Damon's previous excursion, so he assumed they were headed away from town. Soon, they turned off the main road onto a back road that didn't look familiar to Damon, and finally they pulled over at the entrance to, of all things, an RV campground.

Katherine turned to look at Damon and Stefan. "We have a little meeting with Mason's pack of werewolves," she said. "Disgusting creatures, most of them. Damon, if they attack us, you will fight to kill. Otherwise, wait for my signal. We need one alive; the rest are expendable." She turned to the warlock in the front seat. "Jonas, stay out of sight and intervene only if necessary."

Katherine got out of the car, and Stefan followed. Damon just sat there, not having received a specific order, until Katherine realized he wasn't following and turned to glare at him. "Damon, come," she ordered. Inside, Damon couldn't help but be amused that he could annoy her even like this.

It was actually Stefan who led the way through the woods toward the RV campground, and Damon guessed that his brother had probably scouted the area for Katherine earlier. After a short walk, the three of them approached a run-down looking camper, and Katherine stepped forward. She didn't say a word, but apparently she didn't have to as the door to the camper opened. A slim woman with long, wavy blond hair stepped out. "Kathy," she said. "I believe you got the time and place of our meeting wrong."

_Kathy? _Damon thought, incredulous. That was the funniest thing he had heard since, well, however long he had been Katherine's prisoner.

Katherine just shrugged, although Damon saw a glint of fury in her eyes. "I just moved it up an hour. I am a busy woman, you know. And I thought some privacy might be a good idea. This town can be rather suspicious of the supernatural, although I've done my best to put an end to that little complication."

As Katherine spoke, the blonde woman was joined by a man with a buzz cut and an angry look to him. Damon thought the whole scene, especially the trashy camper, could best be described as redneck, and he wondered if surfer boy Mason wasn't actually relatively classy for a werewolf. Why had Katherine gotten involved with these creatures in the first place?

The male werewolf glared at the three vampires. "You know why we're here," he said. "Where's Mason?"

"Unfortunately, Mason's dead," Katherine replied bluntly. Damon wondered suddenly if he was there so that she could throw him to the wolves, literally, for killing Mason. If so, he hoped she would at least let him go down fighting.

"Then it's time for us to spill some vampire blood as payback," the man said.

The female werewolf put her hand on his arm. "Brady," she said warningly. She was still watching Katherine. "Why did you come here?" she asked.

Katherine tilted her head to the side in a way that Damon knew meant trouble. "Well, I need a werewolf, and I have one in mind to replace Mason – but it's always a good idea to have a backup."

Both werewolves seemed to finally sense the threat coming from Katherine at those words, and the female brought her fingers to her mouth and whistled. Damon sensed other figures materializing in the woods around them, although he couldn't turn his head to confirm what his other senses were telling him. He was suddenly very glad that Katherine had given him those two blood bags before they had come. He might not be at his best, but he could fight if he had to. And it looked like that was what he would be doing.

Katherine smiled a predatory smile. "Let's kill some werewolves," she said, and Damon's body knew there was an order in those words. Luckily, fighting was a rather instinctive activity to a vampire, and Damon reacted automatically as a werewolf tried to take him by surprise by attacking from the top of the camper. The wolf was fast, but he was far faster. He reached out and tore the man's heart out in mid-jump. He turned just in time to catch a stake that one of the other werewolves had fired at him from a crossbow, and he sprang on the man with a growl and snapped his neck. Out of the corner of his eye, he sensed Stefan using a similar move to kill another of their attackers. Next Damon tossed the body of the werewolf he had just killed at another who was approaching with a blowtorch. Inside, he thought that this pack seemed awfully well prepared to fight vampires. Maybe there was something to that whole natural enemies thing in the folklore they had found at Duke.

Damon followed up his tossing of the werewolf's body by flashing forward and snapping the neck of the one with the blowtorch before his victim had even made it up off the ground. Unfortunately, Damon's body chose that moment to start going haywire, and he staggered, almost falling to his knees as the effects of his body's resistance to the spell he was under suddenly hit him. He groaned in pain, and only instinct allowed him to dodge the attack of another werewolf by twisting to the side just in time. Luckily, Stefan seemed to have seen what was happening to him, and his brother snapped the neck of the werewolf before he could come at Damon again. Everything went quiet then, and Damon could only hope that silence meant that they had killed the last of the wolves because his body crumpled to the ground, shaking just like the last time.

Vaguely, Damon could feel Stefan touch his shoulder. "Damon?" his brother asked, his voice confused.

Then Katherine appeared in his limited field of vision, kneeling in front of him. "Stefan, make sure our werewolf captive doesn't wake up. It's the woman. Jules is her name. The rest are dead." When Stefan hesitated, she added. "I'll take care of Damon."

Damon sensed Stefan moving away even as the pain worsened. He heard Katherine's voice as if from a great distance. "You just can't do anything the easy way, can you, Damon?" Then she repeated the strange words that Damon knew somehow released him from the spell, and once again he felt a wave of unbearable pain that plunged him into blackness.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Katherine gestured at Damon's body and turned to Jonas Martin. "I'm disappointed in your spell, Jonas," she said with a pout. "It doesn't work properly."

Jonas glared at her with more anger than a warlock should be allowed to show, in Katherine's opinion, but she let it slide. "The spell works fine," the warlock said. "This vampire is just too strong for it."

Katherine glanced at Damon's unmoving form again. "Too strong" hardly seemed appropriate right now. Perhaps "too stubborn" applied, however. The black-haired vampire lay on the floor of one of her house's spare bedrooms since she had needed the dungeon for her new werewolf captive. Having only one dungeon was a flaw of the house, and she knew better than to lock Damon in with the werewolf. He was far too inquisitive for that to be wise. But that created another dilemma, because the spare bedroom would not hold Damon when – or if – he woke up.

Jonas was still talking. "I explained to you that the effectiveness of the potion and spell correlates to the strength of the vampire. If you gave the potion to one of the new vampires, such as Marcus, you would have a much longer period of time, perhaps as much as a day. . . ."

Katherine interrupted him, annoyed. "I don't _need_ the potion to control my new vampires. _Damon_ is the problem. He has been a vampire for less than 150 years. How strong can he be?"

Jonas shrugged. "Based on his age, it should work longer, but it is individual to the vampire. Maybe he's strong for his age?"

"Can you make improvements to the spell?"

"Not without different ingredients for the potion. I believe I've mentioned that I would like to test the blood of an Original . . . "

"And I told you that we can't get that," Katherine said flatly. She decided that this line of discussion was going nowhere and changed the subject. "Will he recover?" she asked.

Jonas frowned, kneeling by the unconscious vampire. "I warned you not to use the potion on him again so soon. I don't know if he'll survive. If he does, you certainly can't give him another potion, at least not for a long time."

As she looked at him lying there, Katherine remembered Damon as a human. She had pursued him for his looks, of course – there were few men of any era as physically attractive as Damon Salvatore. She had met Stefan first on her arrival at the Salvatore house, and she had decided immediately that she would have him. Then she had met Damon, and she had wondered if she had chosen the right brother before deciding that there was no reason she had to choose.

For whatever reason, it had been Stefan, with his youthful innocence and idealism coupled with a carefully concealed edge, who had awakened things Katherine thought she was long past feeling, but she had enjoyed Damon. He had been great in bed, even then as a naïve human, and the war had created fissures in his soul that she had found easy to exploit and widen until he loved her and would do anything for her. She had planned to turn him and continue to enjoy him until she tired of him. But the situation in 1864 had gotten a bit out of control, and Damon and Stefan had both ended up as vampires without Katherine's supervision as she had faked her death and fled Mystic Falls. However, she hadn't forgotten about her Salvatore brothers. Without either of them knowing it, she had checked in on them a few times over the decades, and she had been surprised to see that Damon had made quite an excellent vampire, with the exception of his rather pathetic commitment to her. In fact, Damon had been a better vampire than Stefan, and that had surprised her. Katherine was rarely surprised.

She knew now that she had played things wrong with Damon when she had returned to Mystic Falls. She should have kept him close to her rather than driving him away. She had been thinking too much in terms of immediate amusement, and he had annoyed her with his desperate plea that she tell him she loved him and his sudden acquisition of a conscience. Now she realized that she could have saved them both a great deal of time and trouble if she had simply lied to him then and pulled him back into her orbit.

Instead, she had set off his stubborn streak, and he had poured all the strength he had developed in almost 150 years as a vampire into resisting her. It was aggravating, really. She was on a schedule with her plan, and she really didn't have any more time to waste in trying to get Damon to cooperate. He had already pushed her further than she had intended to go, with his stupid defiance, and she had devoted too much time and energy to him. It was clear that the potion was not a long-term solution, and she knew it was time to give up on Damon and get rid of him.

But Katherine hesitated at the thought of simply killing Damon. She knew that was the easiest option, the logical option, but she maintained a certain affection for him. He was her creation after all, both intentionally and unintentionally, and the world was a more interesting place with Damon Salvatore in it. Plus, she didn't think Stefan would react well to news of his brother's death.

An idea came to her, then, and she smiled. She would play a new game with Damon. It wasn't like he would actually be able to stop her from completing her plan, anyway. "Take him to his house tonight and leave him there. Marcus can help you," she told Jonas. "Let's see if he survives."

•••••

Jonas Martin could see the unconscious body of the black-haired vampire in the back of the SUV. He really didn't expect the vampire to survive two doses of the potion in such a short time, but he felt an odd desire to help this Damon. He didn't normally help vampires, but he thought ruefully that he was truly living in a glass house on that one since he was, after all, working for Katherine Pierce, even if it was under duress. And Damon had defied Katherine for weeks, and she had still decided not to kill him. That was odd, to say the least.

Jonas didn't really want Katherine's plan to succeed, but he knew that he couldn't intervene. She had threatened the lives of his son and daughter, and Katherine was more than capable of making good on her threats. So he was walking a fine line of helping her while trying to undermine her at the same time. He had stalled her progress where he could, such as by claiming that the little Bennett witch had successfully hidden Emily Bennett's grimoire and that he didn't know the spell to make a daywalking ring. But what he really needed was someone else stopping Katherine from the outside, and from what he had gathered, this vampire might at least try.

So he had stolen a bag of blood from one of Katherine's freezers, and of all things, he was about to sneak blood to a vampire. He pulled a spell to deflect attention around himself as he slipped into the back of the car. He awkwardly tore open the bag of blood and held it to Damon's lips. "Come on, drink this," he whispered to himself. He knew nothing about feeding blood to an unconscious vampire, but Damon seemed to be swallowing the blood as Jonas poured it down his throat. Damon didn't stir – one bag clearly wasn't enough for that, and it was all that Jonas had dared to take – but he hoped it would help the vampire to survive the effects of the magic that Katherine had used on him. "Live, and stop Katherine," he told Damon as he wiped away any traces of the blood.

Jonas had just hidden the empty blood bag when Marcus opened the door of the SUV. "What are you doing back there?" the vampire asked suspiciously.

"Just making sure he's out," Jonas answered coldly. He climbed out of the back seat and got in the driver's seat, careful to keep his heartbeat as steady as he could. He could take down Marcus easily enough if he had to, but that would raise questions that he preferred not to have to answer. "Let's go."

"Oh, he's out," Marcus said as he settled himself into the car. "What does Katherine see in that guy, anyway? I don't know why she hasn't just ended him. Or she could let me do it."

Jonas shrugged. "I've given up trying to understand Katherine," he replied.

Jonas drove quickly to the old mansion just outside of Mystic Falls that was the black-haired vampire's house. "Here we are," he said when they pulled up. "Katherine wants us to leave him here."

Marcus just grunted his assent, but he dragged Damon from the back seat and tossed him over his shoulder to carry to the house. Jonas went ahead, and he was surprised to find the front door unlocked. He opened the door to a hallway that was dark and gloomy, with an abandoned feel that he guessed shouldn't be surprising given that Katherine had kidnapped the occupants of the old house weeks before. Jonas hadn't been inside before, and from his first glimpses, he thought that the place looked a bit like a vampire's house with the dark paneling and antique furniture.

Marcus had followed Jonas in, and he dumped Damon's body unceremoniously on the rug in the first room they came to. "How about here?" he said, and Jonas nodded. Marcus stayed kneeling by the body, however, and Jonas tensed slightly. The vampire was up to something. He watched as Marcus picked up Damon's hand, fingering his ring. "I don't think he'll be needing this anymore," the tall vampire said.

Jonas frowned. "You know it won't work for you," he explained. "They have to be made specifically for a particular vampire. The protection doesn't transfer." That was true, although he also simply didn't want Marcus to take the ring. That would severely hamper Damon's movements if he did survive. For some reason, Jonas doubted that Katherine would want Marcus to take the ring either.

Marcus looked uncertain. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you warlock?" he asked. "Maybe I'll take the ring just to try it out."

"I don't think Katherine would approve," Jonas countered.

"If it works, she'll approve. I know she wants you to make me a ring."

Jonas lied this time. "I wish I could, but that one won't help you. Now leave it, and let's get out of here before someone notices the car outside."

Marcus didn't move, however, and he was still staring at the ring covetously. Jonas made a decision. He hit Marcus with the brain aneurysm spell, watching as the vampire cried out and clutched his head. "I said, let's get out of here," the warlock ordered as he dropped the spell. "I may be working for Katherine, but that doesn't mean I'll take shit from the likes of you," he told the young vampire.

Marcus glared at him, but he dropped Damon's hand and stood up.

"After you," Jonas said, holding the door open and gesturing for the taller man to precede him out. He hoped he wasn't going to regret his actions today. He glanced back at Damon's unconscious form as he closed the door.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **_We've caught up now (finally) to the "present" - in other words, to the events of the prologue. In case you've forgotten the prologue, which you probably have, I've repeated it to open this chapter. Please read and review! Reviews make my day and give me interesting things to think about, especially since you are a very insightful group of reviewers ;)_**  
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**Chapter 10**

_Elena parked in front of the Salvatore boarding house and turned off her car. She knew she shouldn't be there, but she couldn't seem to stay away. If she thought things had been bad before, since she had found out she was the doppelganger, everything had fallen apart completely over the past three weeks. And it had all started when the Salvatore brothers had disappeared._

_As always, the front door of the house was unlocked, and it was eerily dark and silent inside. Elena missed the crackle of the fire that had always been going in the fireplace, the voice of Stefan or Damon greeting her as she walked in. Now the place was dark and silent, the antique furniture and random knick-knacks gathering dust. Elena didn't know why she kept coming back there when she knew she would find nothing more than silence and another layer of dust. She guessed it reminded her of a time when she thought she and the town of Mystic Falls had a chance, no matter how slim, of surviving this encounter with the supernatural. _

_Elena took a few more steps into the house, ready to sink down onto one of the couches in search of whatever peace and comfort the silent mansion might offer. Then she saw a man sprawled on the carpet. He was face down, unmoving and apparently unconscious. It was Damon._

•••••

Damon couldn't move. His very bones ached, and his muscles were like jello. If jello also felt an all-consuming burning pain, that was. It was beginning to be a familiar sensation for him, and he knew he was again going through withdrawal from the potion that Katherine used to control his body and lock away his mind. He was also pretty sure that the pain and weakness were worse than the last time, and that couldn't possibly be good.

He kept his eyes closed. The world was spinning badly enough even with his eyes clamped shut, and Damon was well aware that the colors flashing on the backs of his eyelids didn't exist anywhere in nature. He preferred not to actually see them if he could avoid it. If he waited long enough, someone would bring blood to his dungeon cell, and his body would begin to recover. He hoped.

Instead he heard a voice. "Damon?" It was _her_ voice, Katherine's, but not a tone that Katherine would ever use. No matter how much Katherine broke him down, he knew she would never have that tone of worried uncertainty about him. It sounded like . . . Elena? _That's just great. Now I'm hallucinating_, Damon thought in disgust.

It came again. "Damon, is that you? What happened?"

Hesitantly, Damon opened his eyes and tried to shift his arm so that he could see. His arm moved all of an inch, and his eyes weren't really working properly, but he thought he saw a pair of Converse sneakers and legs covered in jeans. Although jeans didn't come in _that_ color, whatever the hell it was. _Yep, definitely hallucinating. Multiple senses involved, too._ He groaned and shut his eyes again.

•••••

Elena watched as Damon opened his eyes a crack, groaning, and then promptly shut them again. She tried his name a third time, still keeping her distance. "Damon?" In that brief moment his eyes had been open, they had been fogged and pain-filled, but she thought she had seen a glimpse of _Damon_ behind the gaze. Was it possible that he had gotten away from Katherine somehow?

Of course, it was also possible that this was some kind of trap. Elena had seen Damon kill Carol Lockwood with her own eyes, had seen him standing with Katherine. Even if she had looked into his blue eyes that day and felt that something was horribly wrong – that it wasn't really him – she knew she couldn't possibly trust him. But she didn't think he was faking not being able to move, and why would Damon be nearly unconscious on the floor of his house unless he had escaped?

Hesitantly, Elena reached into her purse and pulled out the two things that she had carried everywhere with her for weeks now, a stake and a vervain dart. She should stake him, she knew. She had seen him kill again, and it wasn't really so unbelievable that Damon would rejoin Katherine. He had loved her for 145 years, after all. But something made her hesitate. If somehow Damon had gotten free and come back, he could help them and they desperately needed his help. _She_ desperately needed it.

Elena shifted the stake into her left hand and the vervain dart into her right. She took a deep breath and darted forward, stabbing the vervain into Damon's shoulder. He didn't even move, although she saw a shudder pass through his body as the vervain knocked him the rest of the way into unconsciousness. With shaking hands, Elena pulled out her phone and called Ric.

•••••

Alaric looked down at the unconscious vampire who had been his friend. "Huh," he said eloquently. He ran his fingers through his hair. "You know we should just stake him, Elena. He's dangerous."

"What if he's himself again, Ric? We need him," Elena pleaded.

Ric sighed. Why did it have to be Damon? Against all odds and all reason, he liked Damon. He didn't much want to kill him. "You saw him with Katherine," he said reluctantly.

"I know, but he must have escaped. Why else would he be here?"

Ric could think of a lot of reasons, and they all came down to one word – trap. He watched Elena pace back and forth.

"Look," she said. "We can lock him in the basement and then question him when he wakes up. We can find out if he's himself, maybe find out where Katherine's base is. Even her plan."

Ric hesitated. It was clear that Elena's mind was made up, and they did need information on Katherine, not to mention all the allies they could get. Damon could be one hell of a valuable ally if he had somehow defected back to their side. "All right," he said finally.

Ric dragged Damon's body toward the stairs to the basement, wishing he had the strength of a vampire. Damon was not a large man, but he was solid muscle, not to mention dead weight thanks to the vervain that Elena had ejected into his system. Ric was sweating and breathing heavily by the time he maneuvered Damon into the Salvatores' basement cell. "I need to start working out more and drinking less," Ric muttered to himself.

If Elena heard him, she ignored him. "Hold on. I'll be right back," she said, almost running up the stairs.

Ric leaned back against the wall, watching Damon. The vampire had yet to stir. He couldn't help but wonder what had been wrong with Damon when Elena had found him. He hadn't seen any wounds or blood on Damon's body, and the contrasting images of Damon with Katherine versus the Damon who had been his drinking buddy ran through his mind. He wished he knew whether he was looking at a friend or a foe.

Elena reappeared in the doorway. She was carrying a pillow and blanket. At Alaric's skeptical look, Elena said, "What? I don't want him to feel like a prisoner. He's our friend, Ric."

Ric just nodded, but he gently lifted Damon's head so that Elena could place the pillow under the vampire. He thought maybe Damon sighed softly and relaxed into the pillow, and he wondered if Elena was actually onto something with this idea. He watched as the girl draped the blanket over Damon, almost tucking him in. Now he definitely thought he saw some movement from the unconscious vampire.

"Okay, Elena," Ric said warningly. "Let's wait outside."

Elena nodded reluctantly and stood up, her eyes still on Damon. Ric gently took her arm and pulled her from the room, shutting the heavy door behind them and bolting it. He felt a bit ridiculous peering through the bars on the small window, but it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to dealing with vampires.

They had only been watching for a few minutes when Damon's eyes fluttered, and he groaned.

"Damon?" Elena said hopefully from beside Ric. "Damon, it's me, Elena."

Damon's eyes opened slightly, although he still looked like the lids were too heavy for him to raise them completely. "Lena?" he said, his voice rough and slurred.

"Yes, it's me. Ric is here, too."

Damon shifted slightly, his eyes still only half-open. "Is it real?" he asked.

That was a strange question, Ric thought, and he was pretty sure that he heard pain behind Damon's low voice. It was disconcerting to say the least to see his friend this out of it, although Ric reminded himself that they were the ones that had drugged Damon. Elena went on undeterred, however. "Yes, it's real," she said, voice full of compassion. "You're at the boarding house."

Damon moved his head a little and groaned again. "Basement," he said, and it sounded more like a statement than a question. His next word was clearly a question. "How?"

Elena had her hands on the bolt of the door, and she looked at Ric pleadingly. "He's not going to hurt me," she whispered.

Ric shook his head warningly, but he didn't stop her from raising the bolt and opening the door. He stayed in the doorway, a vervain dart ready in one hand behind his back, as Elena crouched down beside Damon. She put her hand on the vampire's shoulder. "You got away from Katherine somehow, Damon," she said. "I found you upstairs."

Ric watched as Damon's eyes focused on Elena with difficulty. Now that the door wasn't blocking part of his view, he could see just how fogged by pain and confusion Damon's normally clear blue eyes were. The vampire was fighting just to be this aware, Ric realized.

"No," Damon said, shaking his head slightly. "Katherine was too strong, I couldn't. . ." He stopped, and Ric saw the vampire's hand moving, shoving the blanket away slightly and reaching toward Elena. He tensed, but Elena just put her hand gently over Damon's and Damon seemed to relax again. He kept talking, however, his voice pained. "I'm sorry, Elena. Stefan . . . Katherine got in his head, fed him human blood. There was nothing I could do. I'm sorry," he repeated.

"It's okay, Damon. You're going to be okay," Elena said reassuringly. She stroked the vampire's hand as Damon's eyes closed again.

•••••

Damon was so tired. The pain had changed, another layer joining the burning, enervating pain that he recognized as withdrawal from the potion Katherine had used on him. His head was still spinning, his brain refusing to function properly, and he had no idea if this Elena was real or just another figment of his over-active imagination. Or another trick of Katherine's, which seemed most likely. Damon wasn't sure of much of anything, but he was almost certain that he hadn't escaped from Katherine. He thought he would remember that. And if this was a trick, he should stop talking before he gave her what she wanted.

The pillow beneath his head felt real, though, and he sank into it, impossibly grateful for that small creature comfort after weeks in Katherine's dungeon. He was so tired of the pain, so tired of fighting. If this was real, he thought, it wasn't such a bad place to die. He was free of Katherine, in his own home, with the closest thing he had to friends. And if it wasn't real, then he might as well die while in the grip of a relatively pleasant hallucination – although it would be nice if he could hallucinate away the constant pain for a few minutes. It wasn't like he had a choice about dying anyway. His body was too weak to move, too weak to seek out the blood that it needed. He couldn't even force his eyes open any more, he realized. And with that realization, Damon Salvatore stopped fighting and waited for death to finally come for him.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **_This chapter turned out really long by my standards, but hopefully you don't mind. As always, feedback is much appreciated, and thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review. This story is not getting a lot of reviews, but it does seem to have a decent number of readers so hopefully that means people are enjoying it.__ I would love to hear what you think of it!_**  
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**Chapter 11**

Elena frowned down at Damon's unconscious form. She had expected the vampire to recover quickly from the vervain she had given him and whatever had been wrong with him when she found him upstairs. But instead, he seemed to have gotten worse over the past hour, if that was even possible. He hadn't regained consciousness, and he had barely moved at all. He was even paler than usual, and there was a sheen of sweat on his face that didn't seem natural on Damon. Elena turned to Ric in frustration. "There's something wrong with him," she said. "He should be healing. I mean, he's a vampire."

"I don't understand it either," Ric admitted.

"He was Damon, right? I mean, it didn't seem like Katherine was controlling him or like he was . . . evil." It was hard to be certain, given how out of it Damon had been when he had briefly talked to her, but he had kept apologizing. He wouldn't have done that if he hadn't been the Damon who was her friend, Elena told herself. The Damon she had first met would never have apologized for anything.

Ric looked uncertain as well. "It was hard to tell," he said reluctantly.

Elena stared at Damon. The vampire's impossibly beautiful features were slack, his closed eyelids hiding the pale blue eyes that were so expressive. She had missed Damon these past three weeks, and not only because his disappearance had given Katherine the upper hand. She had missed their verbal sparring, his inappropriate flirtations, his snarky comments. She wanted her friend back, she decided, and she would fight for him if that was what it took. "We have to help him," she told Ric determinedly. "What are we missing here?"

Ric shrugged. "I don't know."

Elena paced back and forth, trying to think, and then it hit her. "We're idiots," she exclaimed. "He's a vampire. He needs blood. Who knows when he last had any?"

"Well, in our defense, the original plan was to _keep_ him weak," Ric said drily.

Elena decided to ignore that comment. "Are there any blood bags still in the house?"

"I don't think so, but I'll check." Ric left to check the basement freezer, and Elena waited impatiently until she heard his voice. "Nope, it's empty."

Elena's heart sank. She didn't know anything about stealing from blood banks, but she was pretty sure that it relied on compulsion. And letting Damon drain her in these circumstances seemed like a really bad idea, and she was almost certain Ric would veto that plan anyway. Suddenly, she had a better idea. She pulled out her phone. "Caroline, can you bring some blood bags to the boarding house right away? I'll explain when you get here. Hurry, please."

Thankfully Caroline was nothing if not efficient, and it was only a few minutes before Elena heard her friend's cheerful, overly loud voice from upstairs. "Elena, where are you? Wow, is this place looking depressing or what? What's with the dust?"

Elena shouted up the stairs, even though Caroline's vampire hearing could have heard easily heard her normal speaking voice. "We're down here. In the basement."

Caroline was there a second later, carrying a cooler that presumably contained blood. "So what do you need the blood for? I . . . " She stopped in mid-sentence as she saw Damon lying on the floor of the cell. "What's he doing here?"

Elena put her hand on her friend's arm. "I found him upstairs. He got away from Katherine somehow, but there's something wrong with him."

"The blood is for _him_?" Caroline looked shocked, then determined. "No. He killed Tyler's mom. He watched my mom die. He deserves a stake through the heart."

Elena looked at her pleadingly. "He wasn't himself that day. I'm sure of it. We _need _him, Care. He can help us stop Katherine, stop any more killing. This is the first break we've gotten in weeks." She looked toward Alaric for support, but the teacher was silent.

Caroline's eyes flashed. "Since when has Damon tried to _stop_ killing?"

Elena tried again. "You know he had changed, Caroline, before he and Stefan . . . disappeared. Please, do this for me. Trust me, if you can't trust Damon."

Caroline hesitated. She glared at Elena, but Elena could see that her friend was about to relent. "If it turns out you're wrong, can I be the one to stake him?"

Elena laughed, a bit hysterical with relief. "That's fair."

Caroline slowly opened the cooler that she had brought and handed Elena a blood bag. Elena looked at it. She had never opened one before. Stefan didn't drink human blood, after all, other than a few drops each day from her. "How do you . . .?"

Caroline laughed, an odd sound in the somber basement cell, and took the blood bag back, effortlessly tearing it open. Wordlessly Elena took it from her friend and knelt by Damon. The black-haired vampire remained completely still, his complexion even paler than usual. He really didn't look good. Elena shook his shoulder lightly. "Damon, you need to drink this." When he still didn't move, she tilted his head up with one hand and held the bag to his lips with the other, trying to pour the blood down his mouth. Some of it missed and ran down his chin, but most of it seemed to be going in his mouth, and Elena thought she saw him swallow. She guessed that a vampire was unlikely to choke to death on blood, after all.

When the bag seemed to be empty, she set it aside and shook Damon again. "Damon, I need you to wake up." His eyelids seemed to flutter slightly at her words, and she thought his hand twitched. "Come on, Damon." But she couldn't get any further movement out of him, and finally she took another blood bag from Caroline and held it to Damon's lips. This time he seemed to at least be actively drinking the blood, and Elena thought that his color was improving already.

She set the empty blood bag to the side with the other one and gently shook Damon again. "Wake up," she repeated, and Damon's eyes finally opened. He looked confused.

"Elena?" he asked weakly. His eyes seemed to be focusing better than they had before, and Elena saw them scan the room, taking in Ric and Caroline. "I'm at the house," he said, sounding incredulous. "How did I get here?" His voice was still rough and weak, and Elena noticed that he hadn't tried to move yet.

"I found you upstairs, Damon," Elena answered. "What do you remember?"

"Not much," he admitted weakly. "I was Katherine's prisoner . . ." His voice trailed off, a haunted look in his blue eyes.

"Can you sit up?" Elena asked, worried about that look.

"Sure. I just like lying here," Damon said sarcastically.

Elena looked shocked for a moment before a smile spread across her face. Damon really was himself, and he would be okay. She looked beseechingly at Caroline. "Can you help me get him up?" she asked her friend. Caroline looked a bit reluctant, but she knelt and helped Elena drag Damon to a sitting position, his back leaning against the wall. She tore open a third blood bag, feeling like she was getting the hang of this, and handed it to him. Damon reached out a shaky hand and took it, drinking the bag on his own this time. Elena silently handed him the final bag in the cooler when he had finished with that one.

Elena looked up at Ric, debating whether to suggest taking Damon upstairs. Then she made an executive decision. "Let's get you upstairs," she said when Damon had finished with the blood. Her eyes flashed to Ric and Caroline, daring either of them to argue with her decision.

•••••

Damon's sharp eyes scanned the room as Elena tried to help lower him onto the couch. He let out a low growl, frustrated at his weakness. Elena flinched away slightly at the sound, and Damon felt guilty then since after all Elena had just saved his life, although in truth he wasn't quite sure how he felt about that yet. He broke the ensuing silence after a moment, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I love what you've done with the place." He ran a finger distastefully through the layer of dust on the sofa table. "Really, would it have killed you to dust once or twice?"

Caroline snorted. "You're lucky we didn't trash the place. Or sell off all the antiques for the Stop Katherine's Evil Plan Fund." She glanced at Ric and Elena. "Actually, that's a great idea. Why didn't I think of that sooner?"

Damon growled again, but it was Ric who spoke, sounding way too reasonable. "Caroline, money hasn't really been the issue in stopping Katherine, after all."

Caroline looked a bit disappointed at that. "True," she conceded. "But if we have to stake Damon, can we have an estate sale? We could use some of the money for shopping – I totally need new clothes for spring – and maybe some for our college funds . . . "

Elena interrupted her friend. "Caroline," she said warningly.

Damon decided to ignore the mention of staking him since he couldn't really blame them for that option being on the table. He was a little unclear on why they hadn't just staked him on sight, actually. "Elena," he began. "Why exactly _did_ you save my undead life?"

Elena looked at him with those big brown eyes. "Because you're my friend, Damon." She paused. "And because we need your help to stop Katherine. How did you get away from her anyway?"

Damon sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I have no idea."

"What do you mean you have no idea?" That would be Vampire Barbie, sounding indignant.

After a moment's hesitation, Damon went with the ugly truth. "I don't think I did. I mean, obviously I'm here and she's not, but I don't think I escaped. I don't see how I could have." He glanced around the room. "Did you leave my liquor stash alone? I could really use a drink." He spotted several bottles apparently untouched in the corner and started to get up. Or started to try to get up.

Alaric must have noticed his efforts. "I'll get it," his friend said, and Damon tried not to feel too relieved. He was still fucking weak.

Elena was looking at him with concern. "Damon, what do you remember? What did she do to you?"

Damon didn't answer as he took his drink from Ric. He sipped it at first, then gulped down the entire glass. He had really missed alcohol. "How long has it been?" he asked. His body was so destroyed from everything that it had been through that he thought he actually felt the beginnings of a buzz from one drink.

Alaric spoke gently. "Three weeks. It's been three weeks, Damon."

_Three weeks_, Damon thought. It had felt like longer, but the stories always did say that time crawled when you were in hell. In fact, that kind of described his past 145 years. "She came to the house," Damon began, his voice bitter. "She overpowered me so fucking easily." He paused, staring at the fireplace as he had spent so many hours doing over the months since he had come back to Mystic Falls. This time there were no flames to watch. The flames burned at his soul instead. "Stefan, too, I guess. She chained us both in a dungeon." He stopped again.

After a few minutes of silence, Elena spoke softly. "Damon?"

Damon was jolted back to awareness by the sound of his name. Right, he was trying to explain what had happened. "She made Stefan drink human blood. She got in his dreams and twisted his mind – he couldn't defend himself, just like a human." He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. _Damn it, Stefan should have been stronger._ "There was nothing I could do. The chains were spelled. Then, she took him away and left me there." Damon closed his eyes. He knew he wasn't making much sense. "I wouldn't let her into my mind. The last thing I wanted was to be her slave, and that turned out just fucking awesome, didn't it?" He smelled blood and realized that he had just crushed his empty drink glass in his hand.

He glanced around the room and saw matching worried looks on all three faces. It was Elena who spoke. "What did she do to you?" Hadn't she already asked him that question?

Damon opened his hand and watched the remaining fragments of glass drop onto the carpet. He slowly pulled out a piece that had embedded itself in his palm. "Trust me, you don't want to know." _You really, really don't. _ He stared as the cuts healed, albeit more slowly than they should.

"Damon, you need to tell us." Elena sounded so sure of herself, so sure that somehow she could save him. Damon knew he was beyond saving. He had been for a long time.

Apparently he had to tell her something, though. He knew Elena; she would just keep pushing. He kept it short and sweet. "She tortured me, okay. I'll spare you the details." He saw Ric shake his head at Elena as she opened her mouth. That was why he liked Ric, and he liked Ric even better when his friend poured him another drink.

"Do I need to find you a plastic glass?" Ric asked as he handed Damon the drink.

Damon knew his friend was trying to relieve some of the tension, but he wasn't actually in the mood for jokes, for once. "I could break that, too." He drank this glass of bourbon more slowly, savoring it.

It was Caroline who broke the ensuing silence, her voice unusually serious. "Why did you kill Tyler's mom? Why did you let my mom die?" Her voice squeaked a little with emotion at the end.

This was the question, Damon thought. This was what he had to find a way to explain. After a moment, he said, "Katherine had this potion. She forced me to drink it, and it let her use a spell to control my body. I don't know how it worked." He paused, wondering if he should mention Stefan's role that day before deciding that would be too much, too hard. "It was like being compelled, only worse because I was aware the whole time but I couldn't stop myself." He kept his eyes down, blinking back tears. He would _not_ cry. Finally he went on, willing his voice to remain steady. "It fucked me up pretty badly. The warlock said something about the magic being bad for vampires. That's why, this." He held up a hand that shook before finally looking up. "I'm sorry about your mother, Caroline. Liz was a good woman. I would have stopped it if I could have."

Caroline nodded, and she was crying now. Damon watched as Elena moved to put an arm around her friend. He still didn't understand why they hadn't killed him.

Ric had moved over to the window, and Damon watched his friend turn back to the room. "Elena," he began. "It's almost dark out. We need to get home."

Elena shook her head. "I'm staying," she said.

"Elena," Ric began, then his gaze shot to Damon and he gestured for Elena to join him in another room. Elena reluctantly patted Caroline on the back and followed Ric out.

Of course, Damon overheard the entire conversation between them. He wasn't so fucked up that he couldn't hear, after all, and they seemed to have forgotten that he was a vampire. There wasn't anything he hadn't expected, of course. Ric didn't want to leave Jenna and Jeremy unprotected with Katherine and her goons on the prowl, and he insisted that he was not leaving Elena alone with Damon. Elena protested, of course, but he listened as Ric played the family card and Elena gave in. It was kind of impressive, really, that Ric could talk Elena out of something. Finally the two of them walked back into the room.

"Damon, will you be okay here tonight?" Elena asked, big brown eyes wide with compassion. Damon didn't like that look, at least when it was directed at him; it was much too close to pity for his taste.

"Of course," he scoffed. "I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again." Actually, he was looking forward to sleeping, period, but he didn't tell them that he had gotten virtually no sleep over three weeks in that dungeon – periods of involuntary unconsciousness did not count, of course.

"Okay," Elena said, sounding a bit reluctant still. "We'll check on you tomorrow, then. Ric doesn't want to leave Jenna and Jeremy alone after dark . . ."

Damon interrupted the explanation before she could get any further. "I know, I heard. Vampire, remember?"

She blushed, and Ric looked a bit abashed. "Right then," he said. "We should be going."

"Good night, Damon," Elena added. "I'm . . . glad you're back." She and Ric headed for the door, and Caroline – who had been miraculously quiet this whole time – got up off the couch to join them.

"I'll bring you some more blood in the morning, Damon," the blonde vampire said. Her voice was uncharacteristically subdued, but she waved as she headed out the door.

Damon nodded shortly, not wanting to admit that he owed Caroline or that he would need more blood. "I trust you can see yourselves out," Damon said, largely to cover up that he wasn't sure that he could even move off the couch. And he didn't want any of them to feel obligated to stay with him, after all.

Finally Damon was left alone, and he told himself that he was glad of it. He stayed sitting on the couch for a long while. He could hear the silence of the house; the grandfather clock had stopped, he noticed, and he decided that he would wind it tomorrow. And he could smell the dust that had gathered everywhere and a general mustiness from the old house being left unaired. Damon closed his eyes for a moment, debating simply falling asleep there on the couch, but a moment later he opened his eyes again and forced himself to his feet, feeling pleased when he succeeded in standing. He moved slowly to the liquor cabinet and poured himself another drink. He again savored the taste of his favorite bourbon on his tongue, drinking it slowly and enjoying the way this latest drink combined with the ones he had consumed earlier to enhance that faint buzz he was feeling.

When Damon had finished his drink, he headed toward the stairs, staggering slightly. He wondered suddenly if this was what it felt like to be 169 years old. If so, it sucked. Damon gripped the banister as he dragged himself up the stairs, but he finally made it to the second floor and down the hallway to the door to his room. His door was closed, and he turned the knob and pushed it open.

The room was clearly untouched, and Damon wondered if anyone had even been in there since Katherine had taken him. He supposed someone would at least have opened the door to look for him, but he could picture Elena sitting in Stefan's room mourning his brother's disappearance, and he knew no one would have done the same for him. He wondered then, for the first time, what Elena had been doing at the house that day when she had found him, and he idly decided that he would ask her about it.

Damon half-staggered across his room to his luxurious en suite bathroom. He stripped off the clothes that Katherine had given him and dumped them on the floor of the bathroom, mentally adding burning them to his to-do list for the next day as he turned on the shower. He stood frozen for a long time under the powerful stream of water, feeling it go from cold to hot as he let it wash away weeks of grime and filth. It had been a century since he had gone this long without a shower, and he appreciated indoor plumbing all over again. When the water eventually began to cool again, he scrubbed at his hair and body until he finally felt almost clean again. Then he stepped out of the shower and dried his battered body with a thick white towel.

Between the shower, the alcohol, and his general exhaustion, Damon could feel his eyes closing of their own accord, but he dragged himself across the room to pull on a pair of boxers before finally falling into his bed. He sank immediately into a fitful sleep. His dreams were not exactly peaceful.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **_Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! It got an amazing response, and I haven't had a chance to respond personally yet, but I still hope to do so. Also, updates may slow down a bit on this story since I don't have the remainder as fully mapped out as I did the first part - have to make sure I get it right before I post - but I am hoping to be able to continue to update very couple of days.__ This chapter is a bit of a talky, set-up chapter, but I hope you enjoy it!_**  
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**Chapter 12**

Alaric knocked softly on the front door of the Salvatore's boarding house. He had regretted leaving Damon alone as soon as he and Elena had gotten back to the Gilbert house last night. It was obvious that Katherine had hurt Damon both physically and emotionally, but he wasn't sure how much help Damon would accept. Or how to help him, for that matter. But he had enough doubts about leaving Damon to deal with it on his own that here he was stopping by before school to check on his friend. When Damon didn't answer the knock, Alaric tried the knob and found it unlocked. He was going to have to teach Damon to lock his doors sometime. He wondered idly if they hadn't had door locks in the nineteenth century or whether the habit simply came from decades of being a vampire.

Damon didn't seem to be downstairs in the house, so Alaric somewhat reluctantly headed up the stairs. He stopped outside the door to Damon's bedroom and very slowly pushed it open. Damon was asleep, and Ric thought that his friend looked oddly vulnerable lying there in bed. He looked young and human and very much alone, and Ric hesitated in the doorway, debating whether to simply back out of the room. In that moment, Damon opened his eyes, and Ric was frozen in his gaze. Damon raised an eyebrow. "Watching me sleep, Ric? A little creepy, don't you think?"

Ric smiled a little at that. "I just wanted to see how you were doing before school. How are you feeling?"

Damon sat up. "I _was_ enjoying sleeping in. And I'm fine."

Ric thought that Damon certainly looked . . . fit. The vampire wasn't wearing a shirt, and his body looked like some sort of Roman sculpture. Damon apparently didn't have an ounce of body fat. Ric was reminded again that he needed to get back to the gym one of these days. But as Damon stood up, Ric frowned. Damon moved slowly, stiffly, with nothing like the smooth, almost feline, grace that he remembered. Clearly his friend was still hurting. "Caroline promised to bring you blood this morning, right?"

Damon grimaced. "Do I look that bad?"

Ric shrugged. "Yeah, you kind of do."

Damon glared at Ric as he slowly crossed the room to his walk-in closet. "That's what I like about you, Ric – your honesty."

A few minutes later, the vampire emerged wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. Just then, Ric heard Caroline's voice shouting from downstairs. "Damon, are you up? I brought you some blood for breakfast."

"Everyone's up early," Damon groused. He gestured for Ric to precede him out the door.

"It's Monday. We all have school, Damon," Ric reminded his friend.

"Why do you even bother? What's the point? Katherine's probably going to kill us all anyway."

Ric shook his head, glancing back at the vampire behind him. "I see you're still an optimist."

Caroline cut off whatever response Damon might have made. "There you are. Oh, hi, Mr. Saltzman." She handed a cooler to Damon. "I wasn't sure how much I should bring, so I filled the cooler. We'll have to get some more soon, though."

"Fine." Damon still looked annoyed as he took the cooler, but Ric thought the vampire was moving a bit less stiffly now. Or he was faking it better.

Caroline continued on, seemingly oblivious. "Elena thinks we should have a strategy session here after school today. Are you guys in?"

Ric nodded. "I'll be there."

Damon sighed. "I guess I don't have any other plans."

"Good, see you after school then. Gotta go." With a cheery wave, Caroline turned and headed back out the door.

Ric trailed after Damon as the vampire headed for the kitchen. He watched Damon fill a glass with blood from one of the bags in the cooler and place it in the microwave, deftly pressing the buttons to heat it. He couldn't figure out what to say to his friend. Finally, the beep of the microwave broke the silence. "Well, I guess I should be getting to school, too," Ric said awkwardly. He moved to the door. "It's good to have you back, Damon."

The vampire just tipped his glass of blood in response, and Ric smiled slightly as he left.

•••••

Elena knocked on the door to the boarding house. After several weeks of just walking in, it felt odd – in a good way – to knock and know that someone would come and open the door. That Damon would come and open the door. She felt a sense of relief at having him back on her side, although it was tempered with uncertainty. Damon had definitely not been himself yesterday, not in a controlled-by-Katherine kind of way but in a been-through-hell kind of way. She was a bit worried about him, and she felt bad that she had overslept and not come by to see him this morning with Alaric or Caroline. She had talked with both of them at school, and they had both said that Damon seemed better, though, so that was encouraging.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the vampire in question opened the door. "Elena," he greeted her with a smirk. "You're early. Did you skip class to come visit me?"

Elena blushed, because she had in fact skipped her last class. She wanted to talk to Damon before everyone else arrived. "We weren't covering anything important," she said by way of justification.

"That school seldom does." When Elena looked at Damon sharply, he elaborated. "I looked at Stefan's lessons from time to time."

The casual mention of Stefan made Elena's heart clench, and she froze. Damon had come back, she reminded herself. Stefan would be next. They would get him back. Damon was looking at her like he realized that he had just said the wrong thing, so she did her best to cover up how she was feeling. She might have learned that habit from Damon, she thought suddenly. "How are you doing?" she asked.

"Just peachy," Damon answered shortly. She watched him cross the room to pour himself a drink. Unlike the previous day, Damon was moving freely and looked like his usual artfully sexy self. "Drink?" he asked her.

Elena shook her head, slightly exasperated. Apparently Damon didn't care that she was still underage, but Jenna would be there in a few minutes for the meeting. Although if ever there was a guardian who wouldn't care if she got drunk, it was Jenna, she thought fondly.

She looked around the room. Damon had been busy that day, which meant that he probably _was_ doing better. A fire was crackling in the fireplace, and the layer of dust that had covered everything was gone. She was a bit surprised that restoring the house had been a high priority for Damon. "The place looks good," she said, trying to make conversation.

He ignored her. "What were you doing at the house yesterday?" he asked suddenly.

Elena had not been expecting that.

Damon apparently took the look of surprise on her face for confusion about his question. "When you found me," he clarified. "What were you doing here?"

Elena hesitated a moment longer before answering. "I . . . uh . . . I just started coming here to think, I guess."

Damon nodded. "Not the safest thing to do," he said after a moment.

"No, I suppose not," she admitted.

Just then she heard a knock at the door, and she was just as glad that the others had arrived.

•••••

Damon was also glad enough to have his conversation with Elena interrupted just then. Elena had kept coming to the house because of Stefan, he knew. She might have revived Damon rather than staking him, but she had made it very clear that she could never have feelings for him beyond friendship. He wasn't worth anything more than that in her eyes, and Damon couldn't disagree with that assessment.

Tearing his thoughts from Elena, Damon stared at the motley crew assembled in his living room. Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, Ric, Jeremy, and Jenna – he assumed that someone must have filled Jenna in on the realities of life in Mystic Falls. He had received a cool reception at best from Bonnie and Jenna, but he had expected that. Now they all sat around in awkward silence. He should have had more to drink today, Damon decided. He was far too sober for this meeting.

Finally, Elena broke the silence. "Damon, what do you know about Katherine's plan?"

Damon shook his head. "Pretty much nothing, unfortunately." He paused, wishing he had something useful to offer them. "She wanted to capture a werewolf, and I'm pretty sure she got one. I guess as a replacement for Mason."

Bonnie glared at him. "That's not exactly helpful, Damon."

He shrugged, annoyed. "I was locked in a dungeon, okay? I wasn't exactly getting daily email updates."

Elena looked between him and Bonnie in a way that clearly said "play nice." She turned to Damon. "Do you know where Katherine's base is?"

"I could find it," Damon admitted slowly.

Elena looked triumphant. "Good. So we go in there and rescue Stefan."

Damon held up a hand. "Wait a minute. That would be a suicide mission." He wasn't leading _this_ bunch against Katherine. Not when she had already proven just how easily she and her warlock could kick his ass.

Now it was Elena's turn to glare at him. "It worked when the tomb vampires took Stefan. In fact, I think that was pretty much the sum total of your plan."

_She has a point_, Damon thought, but he knew that they would need a much better plan in this case. "We were dealing with the mastermind that was Frederick then. This is Katherine. _Entirely_ different situation."

Elena shook her head. "Same situation. Stefan is in trouble." Damon thought that the rest of the room looked like they were at a tennis match, heads swiveling between the two combatants.

Damon shook his head. "It's not the same. Katherine isn't torturing Stefan." _At least not physically_, he added to himself. "We have time."

Surprisingly, it was Jeremy who interrupted the back-and-forth between Damon and Elena. "What's your better idea, Damon?" the kid asked.

Damon actually did have an idea, so he let the insolence slide. "We hit her where she's weak," he began. "We take out her minions – they're newbie vampires, relatively easy targets. We isolate her, and then we go for Stefan. And for Katherine." He grinned, pleased with his plan. Killing the minions would be fun, too, and maybe it would make him feel like his old self.

Elena didn't look convinced. "Can't she just make new 'minions,' as you called them?"

"It's not that easy," Damon countered. "Not everyone makes it as a new vampire. Not everyone can learn control." He nodded at Caroline, and he saw her nod her agreement as everyone else glanced at her as well. He had to admit – Blondie had surprised him. He hadn't expected her to survive as a vampire, but he was actually pleased that she had not only survived but done well. Not that he'd ever admit it, of course. "And Katherine needs to be able to trust her minions to go out on their own, carry out projects for her. So they won't be easy to replace. Killing them will definitely put a kink in her plans."

"It has potential," Alaric said thoughtfully.

"You're sure Stefan will be okay?" Elena's brown eyes were wide with concern.

"I'm sure," Damon said, trying to sound confident. Actually, he wasn't sure at all. He wasn't even sure the old Stefan was still in there to bring back, if he was being completely honest, but he did know that a head-on assault on Katherine would never work.

"Damon?" Elena said worriedly, and Damon wondered just what she had seen in his eyes. He never had been any good at lying to her, even when his façade was a lot steadier than it was right now. For a second, he almost hoped she _could_ tell that he was just a shell of his former self, not even so much physically – his strength was coming back quickly, in truth – but emotionally. And he had been pretty fucked up before all this had happened, after all. He was afraid that Elena was counting on him to save the day, to rescue Stefan and take out Katherine, and Damon knew perfectly well that he couldn't do that, although he would try for Elena and for his brother. He couldn't beat Katherine. If there was one thing he had learned in the past three weeks, it was that.

Damon got up and poured himself a drink, as much to avoid further eye contact with Elena as anything else. At a look from Jenna, he poured drinks for her and Ric as well. "Let me ask you something," he began. He needed to know how much freedom of movement he had. How badly had Katherine damaged his reputation? "Half the town saw me kill Carol Lockwood and Steven Fell, right? Does that mean I'm at the top of Mystic Falls' most wanted list?"

Jeremy answered first. "Well, most of the town turned and ran, so I'm not sure how many people recognized you."

Ric added, "And it's odd, but Katherine seems to have covered up the killings pretty well. There was hardly any news coverage, and I'm almost certain the two surviving deputies have been compelled to think that everything is just fine."

Damon nodded. "Katherine is covering her tracks." He could see the logic, and that meant that he might not get shot with wooden bullets the first time he set foot in town. He would have to be careful, though, until he got the lay of the land. "That's good. I'll need to be able to move freely."

Elena looked worried at that. "Damon, you'll be careful, right? I mean, some people other than us must have seen what Katherine made you do."

Damon scoffed. "Of course, I'll be careful. Aren't I always?"

For some reason, no one answered him. Caroline finally broke the silence that had filled the room. "I want to help," she said. "Katherine killed my mom, and I want to help take her down." She sounded determined.

For once Damon decided to hold his tongue and not point out that it was actually Stefan who killed her mom. Caroline might be useful, he thought. He was almost certain that Katherine's minions were even newer to being vampires than Blondie was, so she ought to be able to hold her own with them in a fight. Especially after he taught her a few tricks. "Okay," he said with a nod. He glanced around the room. "Who else wants to help? Come on. Make yourselves useful," he added, half-seriously. "Judgy?"

Elena opened her mouth like she was going to say something, and Damon saw Bonnie silence her with a slight shake of her head. There was something they weren't telling him, he was certain. "I'll do whatever I can," Bonnie answered.

"I'll help," Jeremy said more enthusiastically, and Damon rolled his eyes at that. This was what he had to work with. One newbie vampire, one novice witch, one human vampire hunter, and a few humans with no discernable skills. He supposed it was better than being locked in a dungeon with no resources at all, but just barely.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **_I'm so sorry that I have neglected this story for so long. This is why I should have stuck to posting one story at a time. . . . Anyway, I hope some of you are still interested in this story, and at least this chapter is a fairly long one. For those of you who want more Katherine, it's coming. We just have to be patient. I actually have an awesome Damon-Katherine scene that I've already written, but we have a few chapters until we can get to it. In the meantime, here is more of what Damon is doing with his freedom.  
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**Disclaimer: **_I do not own _The Vampire Diaries _or any of the characters, unfortunately. This story is purely for fun._**  
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**Chapter 13**

Finally everyone had left except Ric, who had apparently stayed to keep Damon company. For once, Damon didn't mind. He was already tired of group meetings but he was tired of being alone, too, and Ric was good company. He poured his friend a drink and sank down into his favorite leather chair in the library.

"Damon," Ric began seriously. "What is it you're not telling us about Stefan?"

_I'm going to have to rethink that idea about Ric being good company_, Damon thought. He played dumb. "What are you talking about?"

"I was there last time, and you went charging in to save your brother without a moment's hesitation. Why do I get the feeling that you aren't in a hurry to rescue him this time?"

Damon just shrugged.

"Damon?" Ric pressed.

Damn it, he was going to have to answer. "Stefan," he began. He paused, then forced himself to continue. "Stefan might not be too unhappy where he is."

"What do you mean? You said that Katherine forced him to drink human blood? And got into his head, like brainwashing or compelling him, right?"

"Kinda like that, yeah," Damon drawled. He got up and poured himself another drink before chugging it down. "And now Stefan seems perfectly happy to help Katherine." He paused, drinking straight from the bottle now. Ric was watching him intently. "Stefan helped her, not me," he finally confessed. "When she gave me the potion, Stefan helped her."

"He wasn't himself," Ric said. "Was he?"

"I don't know." Damon flung the now empty bottle of bourbon at the wall, seeing Ric flinch out of the corner of his eye. He didn't really care if he upset his friend in that moment. Struggling to harness the mixture of anger, pain, and hurt that threatened to overwhelm him, Damon slammed his hand down on a nearby table. It shattered under the force of the blow. He stared at the pile of wood, stung by the agony of large splinter that had pierced his palm. He pulled it out with a wince. He should stick to breaking bottles and glasses; it hurt less. "I guess not," he finally said. He couldn't bring himself to admit how much it had hurt that his brother had abandoned him when he had needed him. He should have known better than to believe that his brother might have his back, that he might be able to trust Stefan. Never count on anyone but yourself – that had become his mantra for a reason.

"You know Elena is bent on rescuing him," Ric said after a moment.

"I know." Damon sighed, anger draining away slowly. His hand still throbbed. "I'll help her. He _is_ still my brother, no matter how much Katherine has corrupted him. And I suppose I've done worse to him over the years." He wasn't actually sure that he had, although killing Lexi was right up there, but he knew just how effectively Katherine could corrupt just about anyone. Damon picked up another bottle. It wasn't his favorite bourbon, but it would do. He sat back down in his chair. After a moment, he spoke again. "I answered your question. Now you answer one of mine."

Ric looked at him cautiously. "That seems fair."

Damon watched Ric closely. "What's the deal with Judgy?" He was certain that there was something they were all keeping from him, and it had to do with the little witch. Ric was looking at him blankly, however. "Bonnie," he clarified, and now he saw a look of recognition in the teacher's eyes.

Alaric sighed. "I guess you should know. She lost her powers. Some warlock took them away."

Damon just nodded. That explained a few things, and it made sense that Katherine would get Bonnie out of the way. He was a bit surprised that Katherine hadn't just killed her. It was definitely going to make things harder if they didn't have a witch on their side, though. He supposed he was going to have to talk to Bonnie and find out what had happened. That ought to be fun. At least she couldn't give him aneurysms anymore.

As he and Ric lapsed back into companionable silence, Damon noticed the slanted rays of evening light coming into the window, painting rectangles of sunlight on the floor. It was beautiful, in a way. "Hey, don't you turn into a pumpkin at sunset?" he asked Ric.

"It's midnight, Damon," Ric replied. "And what are you talking about?"

Damon smirked. "I _do_ know my fairytales, Ric. But it's almost dark. Don't you have a family of helpless humans to protect?"

Ric finally got his point. "Shit," he said, glancing at the window. "I guess I do have to go." He got up and headed toward the door. "I'll, uh, talk to you tomorrow. Good night, Damon."

"Night, Ric." Damon was left alone then, drinking and watching the traces of sunset that penetrated the windows. He knew that he seriously needed to get his shit together, and he needed to do so as quickly as possible, before Katherine made another move. He had no idea why she had released him – he was still sure he hadn't escaped – but she was definitely up to something. Katherine always was. And Elena and all of her friends seemed to be counting on him to stop her and rescue Stefan, who probably didn't even want to be rescued. The problem was that Damon knew he was a complete mess. As usual Katherine had done quite a number on him. She had turned his life upside down in 1864; she had done it again just by not being in the tomb and then again when she had arrived in town. And now she had fucked with his mind and his body one more time.

Damon's years as a vampire tended to blend together in a haze of blood, sex, and alcohol – the three things that had largely governed his life for 145 years – but he could remember every detail of his last months as a human. The months in which he had fallen in love with Katherine. He remembered her silvery laugh, her flirtatious smile, the teasing way she had accepted his first tentative touches, the way she had made his body feel more alive than it ever had – he had loved her with his whole heart. And she had taken that heart and crushed it beneath her delicate little shoe.

Damon thought that should have freed him from her – and if that first destruction of his heart hadn't done the trick, surely the subsequent times she had cruelly stomped on his heart until it bled should have gotten her out of his system. But somehow, she was still in there. He had tried to tell himself that his love for Katherine had morphed into hate, or better yet into indifference, that love for Elena had replaced his feelings for Katherine. But deep down, Damon knew Katherine still had her claws in him. He closed his eyes, and he remembered her touch in 1864 or just days ago in that horrible dungeon. Despite knowing that she was even more of a heartless monster than he had ever guessed, part of him still wanted her.

Abruptly, Damon decided that sitting around his house brooding would do him absolutely no good. That was Stefan's thing, after all, not his. No, if he wanted to feel like himself again, he had to act like himself. He was going out.

•••••

A couple of hours later, Damon was seated at the bar in an elegant establishment in the next town over, having decided that the Grill had never been much fun even before the populace was afraid of the dark. And he was completely wasted. He had had a lot to drink before he had even arrived, and he had compelled the bartender into giving him a bottomless glass of bourbon, of which he had taken full advantage. Several attractive women had already tried to flirt with him, only to give up when they realized he was more interested in his drink and his thoughts than them. The current one was more persistent, or more drunk, however. Damon had already forgotten her name – Tiffany or Tina or something like that, maybe? – but she was a pretty little fake blond in her early twenties. She had convinced him to do shots with her to celebrate . . . something. And a few rounds into the celebration, she was all over him.

She had pulled her barstool about as close to his as it would go, and Damon was well aware of the way her hand had slid up his thigh to a place that made her intent very explicit. Her other hand had been rubbing up and down his arm or caressing his hand for the past few minutes, and yeah, she had gotten his attention. Her lips were just inches from his, and Damon missed what she was saying as he stared at them. Her hand slid even further up his thigh, and without any conscious thought, Damon was kissing her. Her lips were warm and soft, and they parted almost immediately to grant his tongue access. She moaned into his kiss and pressed herself closer. Damon brought his hand up to run it through her hair, only to find it hard with too much product, and she smelled wrong, a cheap perfume that didn't appeal to him, but he was drunk enough – or desperate enough – not to care. She was gasping for air when he finally broke the kiss. "Let's get out of here," she whispered breathily, and Damon nodded.

A small voice in Damon's head was saying that he didn't even know the woman's name, but he ignored it. She wasn't Elena, and she wasn't Katherine, and there was no history and no emotions were involved; it was purely physical, and in that moment that was what Damon wanted. Much of his life as a vampire had been this – alcohol and a girl in a bar or a club or a speakeasy or a saloon, sex and blood – and it all felt familiar to him, safe even. Whatever-her-name-was didn't even need to remember him in the morning, after all, any more than he would remember her.

They left the bar, bodies pressed together, Damon's arm around her shoulders. He thought about just taking her in the alley behind the bar, but instead he led her to his car, ignoring her squeal of excitement at the sight of it. The drive back to the boarding house was, well, dangerous since Damon was too drunk to be behind the wheel even with the reflexes and night vision of a vampire. His passenger didn't help things by continuing to touch and tease him during the drive, but somehow they made it back to the boarding house intact. They were barely in the door before Damon was pushing the woman up against a wall, kissing her hungrily. She moaned in pleasure as he hiked up her short skirt and tore off her thong. A second later Damon had unzipped his own pants and he was thrusting into her. She cried out, and Damon noticed that she remembered _his_ name just fine as she fell apart around him in record time. He stuck with the generic "baby" as his own orgasm hit and he pumped his seed into her.

Catching his breath, Damon set the woman down on wobbly legs. He kept a hand on her to keep her upright. "Let's go upstairs," he murmured.

She grinned at him, trying unsuccessfully to straighten her skirt. "Are you as insatiable as I think you are?" she said with a flirty toss of her hair.

"You have no idea," Damon answered. He half-pushed her up the stairs. He could hear her accelerated heart rate, and he could practically smell her blood pumping through her veins. He liked to make sure his victims had at least one orgasm before he bit them – he thought the blood tasted better that way – and it was all he could do to keep his fangs from coming out as he followed her up the stairs. All the alcohol he had consumed was playing havoc with his control.

"Wow, I love your place," the woman declared as Damon opened the door to his bedroom. She glanced around excitedly. "This is even better than the downstairs. More modern. Do you live here alone?" Damon felt a twinge of emotion through his drunken haze at that, but luckily his companion went right onto her next thought without waiting for an answer. "Ooh, great bathroom. Let's make use of that tub."

"Later," Damon growled. He stripped off his shirt and pushed the woman toward his bed, kissing her again. She giggled. He shoved her down on the bed, hovering over her as he turned his attentions to her neck. He watched the pulse of her blood for a moment before his face changed.

The woman turned her head slightly and apparently caught a glimpse of the black veins tracing his face because he felt her freeze under him. "Damon?" she stuttered, fear in her voice. "What's going on?"

Damon pulled himself up for a moment and captured her eyes. "There's nothing to be afraid of," he compelled her. "You had a great time with me tonight, but you know it was a one-time thing." Then he bit down into her neck. Her blood tasted good all right, fresh and warm and with that hint of recent pleasure. He could taste the alcohol that she had consumed that night, too, and the taste reminded him of many nights of feeding just like this. Damon let the blood erase any thoughts that had managed to survive his own drinking binge. A few minutes later he had had his fill, and he rolled away from the woman and promptly fell asleep, mind blissfully blank.

•••••

Damon woke up to sunlight streaming in through his open drapes. His first thought was to wonder why he hadn't closed them, and he pushed himself up with a groan, prepared to shut out the light and crawl right back into bed since it wasn't like he had any plans for the day. Then he caught a glimpse of spray-tanned arm and blond hair, and he realized he wasn't alone in the bed. He stared at the motionless figure for a moment. _Just how much did I drink last night?_ Damon wondered. _I can't even remember her name._ Then he realized it got worse. He didn't hear a heartbeat. The woman was dead.

_Shit._ Damon sank back onto the bed, wide awake now. _Shit, shit, shit._ He couldn't remember many details from the previous night, which told him that he had had way too much to drink. Vampires didn't really get hangovers – thank you, accelerated healing – but that was small consolation at the moment. He was lucky that he apparently hadn't had any visitors that morning since he suspected that, friend or not, Ric would probably try to stake him if he thought Damon was killing again, and then Damon would have to defend himself and, well, they had already played out that scenario once. It was a good thing that Bonnie had lost her powers, or he could be in trouble from that front, too.

The question was whether he had killed the woman for any reason or whether he had simply screwed up and taken too much blood. He strongly suspected the latter. He had clearly fed from her and had sex with her, and it was by no means the first time Damon had woken up next to a corpse over the years – he ignored all the obvious vampire jokes that came to mind, since he really wasn't in the mood – but it had been a while since he slipped up like this. Killing was part of his nature as a vampire, but Damon was afraid that this woman had only died because he had lost control. And he didn't like losing control.

Damon groaned. He had really been trying not to kill any more people since he had decided to stay in Mystic Falls for a while. It had started out as a way to lay low, and more recently he had felt that odd desire to live up to Elena's expectation that he could be a decent person and to make it up to her for accidentally, temporarily killing Jeremy. Plus he had somehow picked up friends with at least some morals, like Ric. But this just proved, Damon decided a bit ruefully, that he had been right all along that he couldn't fight his nature as a vampire. It was one thing to kill someone who needed killing, like Mason, and another to kill because he simply lost control and did what came naturally. Obviously, he wasn't a good person, and he never would be.

With a sigh of disgust at himself, Damon got up and looked for a shirt. He had a body to dump.

**A/N: **_Okay, I hope no one is too upset with me (or poor Damon) here. Damon screws up all the time on the show, and since I am trying to write him true to character, it seemed like it was time for him to screw up. Let me know what you think. Reviews are love!_


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